AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Except the one I care about most.
My phone lies heavy and silent in my pocket. There have been no more texts from Theo, and no calls.
Her absence is a void all around me, dampening the sights and smells. The blue sky looks dull, and the birdsong is shrill. I just want this to be over.
“You’re quiet,” Angus observes. “I know what that means.”
“That makes one of us.”
Angus laughs. “You can’t fool me, Sullivan, no matter how cool you play it—this is the one you want me to take.”
I sigh, and it feels like I sink down into the dirt another inch. “You got me.”
He turns in a circle, arms outstretched. “And I have to admit, it’s got most of what I need…”
Today Angus is wearing an outfit that makes him look a big game hunter, only his cargo shorts are lime green and his hiking boots are bright orange. Neither one is helping my nausea.
“It has everything you need.” I didn’t mean the words to come out so clipped, but that’s the best I’ve got today. I’m brittle, hollow, rigid.
Angus stops spinning and gives me sharp look. “True. It’s almost uncanny…like you had it waiting for me all along.”
The mood has shifted. It’s as subtle as the breeze blowing across the treetops, but we both feel it.
Angus faces me squarely, all his joviality and idiocy fallen away. Now I’m looking at the man who beat, clawed, and barreled his way to billionaire status.
Quietly, I say, “Maybe I did.”
The twitch of his lips betrays his satisfaction. “That’s what I thought.”
We face off like gunslingers, the woods seeming to whirl around us. I should be nervous, but my heart is still an aching lump in my chest. It hardly seems to beat at all.
In a deceptively casual tone, Angus says, “Jessica seems to have some idea that you’re scamming me.”
The dullness I feel helps me not to react. “Jessica has a lot of interesting opinions.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But she made some good points.” Angus’ eyes flick across my face, hunting for evidence.
I feel a hundred years old and weary. It’s hard to even muster the energy for this conversation.
“Let me guess…she thinks I’m using Theo to get to you.”
Angus looks surprised that I’d even say it out loud. “Well…are you?”
The sigh I let out comes from the bottom of my toes. When it’s over, I feel empty inside, completely cleaned out. No space for lies, only the truth.
“I’m crazy about Theo. In fact, I fucking love her.”
I should feel worse than ever, but somehow saying those words gives me my first bright bolt of hope. My heart wakes in my chest, sudden as a bird fluttering against my ribs.
I love Theo.
I love her.
It’s real and it’s true.
Even Angus can see it. His eyebrows knit together, and he shifts uneasily. “I don’t believe you.”
I shrug, defeated and depressed. “It doesn’t really matter what you believe.”
