Chapter 13
COOPER
“God, this chicken is so good,” Leo moans from beside me.
I shoot him a glare, and he drops his fork. “I didn’t know!” he hisses.
Apparently, none of the guys did. Not a single person spilled.
What are the god damn odds?
“I will say,” he starts, picking his cutlery. His eyes connect with mine, and I know I’m fucked. “That was quite the reaction for two people who supposedly do not know each other, am I right, Owen?”
Owen peeks around him, looking almost sheepish. “It… was a little odd, I won’t lie.”
Sitting back in his seat, Leo chews his food thoughtfully. “It almost seems like there’s a history there. Weird.”
I groan. “Can you just ask what you want to ask?”
Dirwin leans back in his chair, looking around the other two. “I think he means fess up.”
Truthfully, I never really thought I’d have to tell them about Amara and me. No matter how much it hurts to think about, it was a long time ago.
I should have known better.
Like a grand eagle swooping in, Edward appears in front of me, a panicked look on his face. “Hey,” he starts, his voice shrill. “I feel as though there’s some tension here.” His eyes flicker to Amara, who’s been sitting on the far edge of her chair next to me this whole time, whispering with Mila.
Every time I look over, Mila’s eyes meet mine with a look that could send me six feet under.
“Just a little,” I confirm, crossing my arms.
“Well,” he looks at everyone around us. “I just feel as though we should get a few clips of you talking, don’t you think?”
I raise an eyebrow, kicking my feet out in front of me. “You’re telling me that none of this was on purpose?”
Edward stares at me, his mouth agape. “I—well—I’m not quite sure what you want me to say to that.”
I find my sister in the crowd. She’s sitting with Amara’s parents, the grin on her face enough to warm my heart ten times over. “A little birdie told me that you guys definitely had knowledge that we knew each other when you paired us up.”
Edward stands tall, his shoulders back. “There’s no way to confirm that.”
Next to me, I feel something stir. I glance out the corner of my eye, finding Amara paying attention. “Lindsey already ratted on you,” she says matter-of-factly with a grimace.
Edward lets out a shaky breath, his eyes flickering somewhere behind us. They narrow before finding me again.
“We weren’t—” he purses his lips, his eyes jutting up as he thinks about his words. “We weren’t sure about the circumstances. We just,” a pause, “we just hoped that paths would have crossed.”
Two small hands grab my arm, pulling me toward her. They burn through the thick fabric of my tuxedo, sending shivers down my entire body.
“You want a happy couple? Fine.”
I’m not sure I can survive pretending.
Immediately, her face lights up as she looks up at me, curving her body into mine.
Edward eyes us for another moment before walking off, feeling satisfied enough.
“What are you doing?” I ask through clenched teeth, my right hand fisting my pants.
She lets out what anyone else would think was a contented sigh, but I know better.
I’ve heard plenty of those. Of contentment.
Of Satisfaction. Of pleasure that night I had to stay in her parents’ guest bedroom across the hall.
The sound replays in my nightmares, knowing I’ll never see what caused it with my own eyes. Or be the one who causes it again.
This is resentment.
“If you think for even a second that this is going to be fun for you, you’ve got another thing coming,” she says under her breath as she waves to a family friend across the room.
Of course.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me—”
“I would never.”
“I just want to make this as easy for us as possible.” I turn my head, my lips nearly brushing her ear, and if I didn’t know her better, I’d think she’s leaning into me.
But she doesn’t say anything.
Instead, she sits there for a second, my words ruminating, before swiftly getting up.
“Did you know it was going to be her?” my sister asks, her eyes burning a hole in me.
I throw my hands up, the alcohol hitting the side of the glass forcefully, nearly spilling out. “Why would I have known? Do you really think I would have pretended not to know?”
“So no one talked?” She looks around at my friends in disbelief.
I shrug. “Apparently, they were all told to sign NDAs. None of them figured the others needed to know.”
I could see Briar being a rule follower. She fits the bill. But Leo? Jesus Christ, the man has been an absolute chaos demon in the locker room for years now. A lovable one that I wouldn’t trade for the world, but a chaos demon nonetheless.
And Isla and Crosby? No.
But somehow, I do think that they’re telling the truth. Some way, somehow, they didn’t say a word to each other.
The one time I wished they’d be disrespectful of the rules, they follow them perfectly.
“What did they all think they were doing today?”
“Apparently, Leo told Briar that he had a party to go to. Briar told him she was going out of town with her mom, which he said, “should have made me question things a little more,” but of course, he didn’t.”
Natalia looks across the room. “I haven’t talked to her yet.” She sounds sad.
“When was the last time you spoke?”
She takes a sip of her wine. “When grandpa died.”
I pause, the room spinning. The music fades. “You didn’t tell me that.”
She shrugs. “I did. You had too many things going on. She couldn’t reach you.” There’s a sigh as she shifts her weight onto her other leg. “She asked about you.”
Across the room, Amara shoots another whiskey before slamming the glass on the table. She and Heidi dance as the others talk beside them.
“And what did you say?”
“I said I didn’t know what was going on. I was honest with her,” she says with a shrug.
We’re quiet for a long time after that. Minutes fly by as we watch the girls dance, order drinks from the bar, and talk to people we hardly know. There are cameras all around us, and neither of us seems to give a fuck about what they hear now. We’re too far in.
I’m aware of them trained on me. I mean, how could I forget? The microphone is strapped to me. But it feels real. It is real.
I don’t feel like there are dozens of people I’ve never even talked to standing around.
I don’t feel like Edward is in the shadows, burning a hole in my head as he wills me to do something.
“Do you think I have a chance?” I ask Natalia.
She snorts, looking over at me. “Honest answer?”
I nod.
“I’d be shocked.”
My heart drops.
“But I do hope that you win her back.”
My sister walks off in Amara’s direction, leaving me to think about her words.
And I stand there for longer than I would have thought I’d be allowed. Each moment, I expect someone to come over to me and urge me to do something.
Maybe it was only a few seconds.
Maybe it was an hour.
But eventually, after watching her take another shot or two with friends, I watch Amara as she looks at me, her face ashen.
And she leaves the room.