Page 55 of Someone Like You

“I can’t keep lying to Abby.”

“Nothing happened. There’s nothing to lie about.”

Phil frowned. “That’s the problem, though, isn’t it? I can control my actions, but not how I feel.”

It was apparent Ian hadn’t expected such a direct admission, because he almost smiled at it.Almost.

“Then what? You’re going to leave her for me?”

The disillusioned abrasiveness didn’t scare Phil. He felt the same way. Grieved the same way.

“Would you have me if I did?”

“You’re not fuckin’ serious.”

“Answer the question.”

Ian turned the other way with a terse sniff. “I was going to say I’d go to bloody hell and back for you, but we’re already there.”

As forlorn as the remark was, it spilled a sprinkle of sunlight into Phil’s chest.

“That’s... oddly romantic,” he couldn’t help but grin. “Not what I expected, but…”

“What’d ye want to hear? That Abigail’s the only thing standing between us? ’Cause she is.” A grimace twisted Ian’s mouth. “I hatemyself for all the times I’ve wished she didn’t exist. But she does, and you love each other, so why are we even talkin’ about this?”

“I don’t know,” Phil had to admit. He hadn’t felt so lost and so frighteningly helpless. “I wish… I don’t even know. That things were… different.”

“I’m not worth losing her.”

“So you’re encouraging me tolie?”

“Fuck’s sake, Phil…”

“It’s not your decision to make, is it?”

Ian’s shoulders sank, shrouded by sadness. “You can’t throw away four happy years and a whole future with Abigail just because you met some hot guy on a trip to Scotland.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m jeopardising my relationship with my fiancée because you’rehot,I’mthatshallow!” Phil spat, anger now mounting inside him. If Ian thought this whole ordeal was just a horny crush, Phil had bad news for him.

“So what’s your plan? Ruin everythin’ for you two just to risk it all with me?”

“I don’t know.”

“We might not even work out, so why—”

Phil saw red. “You know that’s bullshit!” He jumped to his feet, fuming. There were many things he was willing to let slide, but not this. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t think we’d make each other happy.” He towered over Ian, nostrils flaring. “C’mon, big man! Lie to my face!”

Ian shook his head, refusing to look up.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

A cold breeze blew on their clammy skin.

“You love her,” said Ian glumly.

“It’s because I love her that I can’t keep this from her. You, of all people, should understand.” Phil bit the inside of his cheek, afraid he’d overstepped his boundaries, but it was too late to take it back. It was true, after all: Ian had been in Abby’s place with Jamie. He knew how harmful hiding things from your partner was. “She has a right to know her fiancé’s in love with someone else.”

Alsoin love with someone else?

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