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Determined, I bent down behind the bar, fished out a bottle, and refilled the glass between us. Her eyes lingered on the scratches on my knuckles before she looked at me again.
"Haven't you got a girlfriend?"
"Would I be making an offer like this to you if there was a girlfriend?"
"I don't know."
"It's not like you're cheating on Alexander, is it?"
Audrey rolled her eyes. "Not that he'd care. It wouldn't have mattered to him."
I quickly reached for the glass and took a sip before my thoroughly shocked reaction painted a fairly clear picture.
Her statement implied that what she had done was far worse in his eyes. Which, of course, aroused my curiosity again, which she would not quench this time.
"You do realize that you're painting a pretty clear picture of your ex right now, don't you?"
"I'm probably not telling you anything you didn't already know." She had a point. Ever since this man had come into Matthew's– and thus Audrey's– life, I had formed a very detailed opinion of him. And it rarely reflected well on him.
"So that settles that. You didn't cheat on him."
"Are you going to keep poking around in the dark until you find out?"
Actually, my thoughts were already moving in a pretty clear direction as far as my suspicions were concerned, but I still wasn't sure if I should dare to express them. I could only think of one reason why Alexander had left her at the altar, and it had to do with the dirty secret she had unwittingly shared with me. I had wondered if he knew about it, maybe even shared in the proceeds, or watched during the streams to monitor everything. At the very least, it would have been right for him to know. But the longer I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that he hadn't had a clue about his fiancée's preferences. I was careful not to accuse her of dishonesty, though it seemed much clearer to me that Alexander simply had no interest in anything other than monotonous vanilla sex that always followed the same, regimented paths. Best of all, always on the same day of the year and at the same time.
But if that was the reason why he had practically abandoned her, it must have done something to her. With this thought in mind, it no longer seemed fair to hide my knowledge from her. It was far from my mind to stab her in the back as well. She should decide for herself how she felt about it.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure I already suspect the reason."
"Oh yeah?"
"He found out you were livestreaming, didn't he?" I left the sentence exactly as it was. No additional explanation. Just a fact.
Audrey gave me a sideways glance. Her eyebrow twitched. "He did," she replied.
No shock. Nohow did you knowor whatever. Not even a blink. Just a confirmation of what I said.
For a brief moment there was a yawning void in my brain. Audrey promptly filled it.
"He found my tech, did his research, and waited until the church to tell me he knew."
"But that wasn't all he said, was it?" Anger rose in me.
"Of course not. He also told me how disgusting it is, that I'm sick and I have to make an excuse or he'll tell my parents. I tried to explain it to him, to make it clear how important it is to me and what it really means, but he didn't want to hear any of that. Instead, he recommended I see a psychologist."
A dry laugh rose in my throat.
This man clearly had no idea. If he found Audrey's little webcam sessions disgusting, how would he react when he found out about my penchant for knives? Or that I had been watching Audrey and had more than enjoyed it, even though I had taken no active part or influence in what was happening?
"You know that's not the case, right?"
"It still hurts. I knew from the beginning he would not understand. That's why I didn't tell him. The mask, the username. All the precautions, and then the day before the wedding he gets the idea to snoop through my things."
"The ruined wedding doesn't bother you but his reaction certainly does," I noted.
This time she turned to me. "Why didn't he react the way you did? He could have discovered it, kept his mouth shut, and just watched it happen without ever saying a word. That would have been decent."
There. She admitted it. Audrey admitted that she had known all along that I was watching her. Counted among her regulars. And according to her, she was not put off by it, nor did she find it disturbing.
