Page 99 of Please Hate Me

But of course, nothing could ever be easy with Mason-fucking-Albright. She didn’t want to sleep; instead, she wanted to explore my belongings. I let her wander around, enjoying the way her shadow looked as it danced across the moss-green wall.

“Do you play all of these?” she questioned, pointing to my wall of instruments.

My throat went dry as I scratched my head. To me, this woman was just Mason-fucking-Albright. But, to the world, she was one of the most recognizable faces in the music industry. She was so ridiculously popular that I had to stop letting my staff pick music for the shop because they all had at least one of her songs on their playlists.

In other words, I’d be stupid if I weren’t nervous to talk music with her.

“I do, yeah. There’s a bar up the street I play at every so often. Just guitar, mostly… and I play the organ for Cameron’s church.” Cam still wasn’t happy about that fact, but after their old organist keeled over, I was the only person in Hartwood who could play the pipe organ.

Mason lifted the wood covering the ivory keys of my piano. She tapped middle C, and her nose scrunched.

“Your piano is out of tune.”

I closed my eyes and let out an irritated sigh.

“Thank you, Mason.”

“If you have the tools, I can tune it for you.”

I lifted her fingers from the keys and slid the wooden guard back into place. “Why don’t you touchliterallyanything else?”

Her gaze narrowed before she looked away, flicking her hair over one shoulder. I rolled my eyes as I wondered what she’d pick apart next. But she seemed frozen as she looked at the wall above the piano. I did my best to follow her gaze and landed on the violin in the very center.

“Before you ask—no, I can’t play that.”

How the fuck could I? There weren’t even frets to go off of when playing. I couldn’t even remember where I’d gotten the thing; I just thought it would make a nice centerpiece for my instrument wall.

“No, I know.” Her voice wavered, and she looked back at me with glossy eyes. “I noticed it the first time I was in here… I can’t believe you kept it.”

What the fuck did she mean? Did she recognize this violin? It seemed important to her, so I did my best to mask my confusion.

“... Why wouldn’t I?”

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she looked back at the instrument.

“I was so excited when you bought it for me… I thought for sure you would have thrown it away after I left.”

Something about Mason’s words caused the memories to trickle back like water through an old leaky pipe. Her mom sold her violin to punish her for something stupid. I couldn’t even remember what it was anymore, but it was probably something that didn’t warrant a punishment in the first place. Mason was beside herself; easily the most upset I’ve ever seen her. So, I mowed Leona’s lawn for a year, saving up money to drive out to the music shop and buy her the most beautiful violin I could find. The look of pure joy on Mason’s face was well worth the manual labor.

I walked behind her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. I wondered what she’d do if I showed her all the photo albums I kept, or if I let it slip that I just sohappenedto keep the ring my mom had given me to propose to Mason with.

But now wasn’t the time for a stroll down memory lane, and I certainly wasn’t ready to think about marriage with Mason-fucking-Albright. It was late, and she needed her rest.

“I’ll get it down so you can play tomorrow. For now, let’s go to bed.”

Sophia and Cameron were early birds, I was a night owl, and Mason had the sleep schedule of a pigeon on crack. Her erratic routines were another quirk I’d forgotten over the years. As she lay on my chest, moonlight bathing her soft features, I realized she wouldn’t go to sleep without a fight. This hypothesis was supported by the fact that she wouldn’t shut the fuck up.

But, somehow, I didn’t mind listening to her chatter.

As she droned on about some millipede that smells like cherries when it’s scared, I pulled her closer. Years ago, Mason’s bug fascination was something that always annoyed me. I couldn’t even step on a fucking spider without hearing all abouthow great they are for the environment and how I was a bad person for even thinking about killing it. But... It was kind of nice to hear all the new facts she’d learned in our time apart. It was like she wanted to get me caught up on everything I’d missed.

That being said, if this bitch brought any of her “special interests” intothishouse, I was going to force her to kneel on rice.

As her lecture about millipedes morphed into a list of every dragonfly fact known to man, I rested a hand on her stomach and tuned her out. Right now,thiswas my favorite part of her body—not because of how fucking hot she looked with a bump, but because she was growing a tiny little human in there. I couldn’t wait to see what a little half-Mason-half-Cameron would look like running around with Jas and Juni. One of the best things about polyamory was witnessing the beautiful relationships that could form between the people you loved. To see the way their eyes lit up when they saw each other, to see—Oh my fucking god. I still loved Mason.

What was I, stupid?

I couldn’t move the arm supporting her head, so I moved the one on her belly and scrubbed my eye. I wanted to hit myself in the fucking face, but she’d obviously notice that.

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