Page 103 of Spark

When Laila is gone, Cooper places the lunches on a table and assumes her vacated seat.

“Hey,” he says nervously.

I stare at him, letting him know I’m not interested in small talk.

“I just need to know if you slept with him while dating me,” he says, his chest rising and falling sharply. “Please, Ruby. Tell me the truth.”

“Why do you need to know that?”

“Because I can’t sleep at night, wondering if you ever loved me. Wondering if all those sex dreams you had about him were?—”

“I didn’t have sex dreams about Kendrick.”

“I know what I heard.”

“You weren’t in my head, though.”

Cooper runs a hand through his hair. “How long have you wanted him? Did you only get with me to make him jealous? Was anything between us ever real?”

I exhale. “I told you I didn’t want anything too serious, remember? I told you that, right up front, and you said that was great. All you wanted, too. And then you turned into an obsessive, possessive jerk on me.”

“Because I was in love with you,” he whisper-shouts. “Because I would have said anything to get with you. Don’t you get it? I was in love with you, Ruby, heart and soul. But as I quickly found out, you were in love with someone else.”

“I wasn’t in love with Kendrick. You created that narrative in your head. He was my best friend. Like a brother to me.”

“Apparently not, given that you’re fucking him now.”

He’s got a point there. “Why are we doing this? Why does it matter? I never cheated on you, okay? I promise, when I said Kendrick was like a brother to me, it was true at the time. The God’s truth. Yes, things changed after I said it, but that was the truth then.”

Cooper scoffs. “That’s not possible, Ruby.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t owe you any explanations, Cooper. I didn’t do anything wrong during our relationship. And I’m not doing anything wrong now. Your jealousy is making you paranoid.”

Cooper takes a deep breath. “Did you ever want me? Just tell me that.”

I think about that. “As a friend, I felt close to you. But once we started dating, no, I never wanted you. Not like you wanted me. I should have realized the relationship was too one-sided—doomed—much sooner than I did and cut things off. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Cooper smiles ruefully. “Hey, at least I got a hit song out of it.”

I can’t help smiling. “You sure did.”

“Are you still pissed about the song? Word on the street is you want to string me up by my balls for it.”

Before I reply, a crew member pops his head into the door. And when he sees Cooper and me in the room together, he palms his forehead. “Fuck. Don’t let Nadine know you had this conversation, whatever it was, or she’ll kill me. She told me to keep you two apart, no matter what, unless cameras were rolling.”

“We won’t say a word to anyone,” I reply.

“Please, or I’ll lose my job.”

“Mum’s the word,” Cooper says.

“Thanks. I came here looking for you on the off-chance, Cooper, only because I’ve already looked everywhere else. It’s time for you and Jon to meet with his team.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“No, you need to come with me now.”

Cooper doesn’t move. Instead, he returns his gaze to me. “Are you still pissed?”

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