Chapter One — Callum
“And then you fucked her?” Trent asks. I nod.
“Are you serious?” Instead of answering him, I just take a sip of my coffee.
“You’re losing the plot here,” Trent says. “I mean, didn’t you say you were trying to get her to quit the games?”
“I mean, she won though,” I say, shrugging.
“Yeah, but that’s because you picked a stupid game.”
I shrug. “I was trying to be fair.”
“Since when do you care about fairness?” he says, rolling his eyes. “Spare me.”
“I know, I know,” I say. “I won’t do it again. But, hell, it was fun.”
“Didn’t you say she betrayed you or something?” Trent asks.
“Yep,” I say, averting my eyes.
I don’t know how I’ve been keeping it together around Trent for so long. I guess compartmentalization. Although, I think another part is that I’m starting to doubt the entire narrative myself.
I saw his name light up on Alex’s phone a few weeks ago.
She told me she was texting her mom, but that clearly wasn’t true.
It was Trent. Obviously I assumed they had a thing going, which wasn’t necessarily wrong, seeing as Alex and I never discussed exclusivity. It was the lying that pissed me off.
But the longer things have gone since then, the more I’ve started to doubt it. For one, I feel like I would have caught them together by now if that was the case. I mean, I spend enough time with both of them.
Also, it’s still hard to believe that Trent would be Alex’s type.
And on top of that, I realize now that, yeah, Alex lied, but I have no idea what she was actually talking to Trent about.
It could have been anything. I thought I would ask her about it a bunch, but I’ve started to feel a little bit silly about it.
I mean, what if I’m wrong? What if they were organizing a birthday party for me? I know that’s not the case, since my birthday was three months ago, but maybe this is the time to come clean.
I look at Trent again. On one hand, I’m so tempted to tell him everything, to get him to explain himself. But then again, if he and Alex really have been lying to me and deceiving me, will I be able to get the answers I need by asking him?
He’d just lie. And if he’s been able to keep up the charade, he’s a much better liar than I ever thought.
No, I can’t ask him. I’m gonna have to get to the bottom of this myself.
“So are you gonna try and start winning, or are you just gonna hand this girl a million dollars?” he asks.
That snaps me back to reality. “You’re right,” I say. “No, I’m gonna start taking it more seriously.”
“Good,” he says. “I need you, man. The business needs you.”
I nod, although I don’t really care.