Page 192 of My Fake Dating with the Grumpiest Highlander
I take another long drink.
The whisky doesn’t numb anything anymore.
It just amplifies the pain.
Jamie studies me like I’m some fascinating medical specimen under a microscope.
“So that’s why she looked devastated this afternoon? Because you ended your little performance?”
I freeze.
The glass stops halfway to my mouth.
“What?”
“I ran into her near the paddocks. She’d been crying.”
Something twists violently in my chest.
“When I asked what was wrong, she said it was nothing.”
He watches me with a new kind of intensity now.
Harder.
“But I know her. It wasn’t nothing.”
Silence stretches between us.
I grip my glass hard enough that it could shatter.
“What did you do?”
His voice has changed completely.
No empathy left now.
Only accusation.
I close my eyes.
“I told her the truth. That there’s nothing between us. That this was all just an arrangement. Nothing more.”
“Even though it’s a lie?”
“It’s not a lie.”
“You’re lying.”
I hear him lean closer.
“I saw the way you look at her. You’re in love with her. So why are you lying?”
I open my eyes again.
The room tilts slightly from the alcohol.
Or maybe that’s just my entire world collapsing.
