Page 64 of Chasing Elliott
"I'd love to talk to him, but no one has seen or heard from him since the party. I think I'm just going to go home. Thank you though, Laura, for telling me."
"Of course. I'm sorry it took so long but I do hope you two can work this out. He's a great guy and it's clear you make him happy. He deserves that."
Pushing back from the table, I threw my cup away and started making my way back to Benjamin's parking lot to get my car. Sliding in, I flipped on the engine and started driving back to the townhouse.
I pulled into the lot and sat in the vehicle for a moment. Taking a deep breath, I made my way out of the car and towards our place. Stopping abruptly a few steps away from my door, Iheld my breath as I saw Cooper standing there with a bouquet of lilies in his hand.
"Nice of you to finally make an appearance," I mocked as I brushed past Cooper to unlock the door. Quickly walking inside, I threw my keys on the counter and turned around with my arms folded over my chest.
Cooper slowly closed the door behind him before turning to me with a sad, far off look on his face as he held the flowers out towards me. I stared at them before looking back up at him and sighed as I leaned against the counter.
"Look, I'm sorry, Elli. I just needed to clear my head," he apologized as he sat the flowers down on the chair and gave me a sad smile. "It was just a rough night for me, and Ioverreacted."
"Why does Jonathan bother you so much?" I questioned as I relaxed my posture slightly.
Cooper sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It's a long story, but we don't have agreat history."
"Yeah, it is kind of hard to have a good relationship with someone who slept with yourex-girlfriend while you were still together."
He stiffened suddenly as his eyes widened but I stood there, emotionless. Cooper very noticeably swallowed and shifted his weight between his feet before he wrung his hands together. Cocking a brow, I stared at him as he began pacing in front of me.
"How'd you find out?"
I scoffed as I glanced up at the ceiling before looking back at his distraught face. "Does itreally matter? What matters is I didn't find out from you. Why did you hide that from me?"
"I was ashamed, okay?" He snapped as he stopped and looked at me desperately as hethrew his hands in the air wildly. "I let her walk all over me and even brought her home to meet my parents and then she stabs me in the back. What am I supposed to say?"
"You could've told me that was why she was so hung up on trying to split us up," I fired back, growing frustrated. "You had so many chances all those times I complained about hergoing after me and Kay, or all those times we ran into her when we went places. But you hid it from me, and I still don't understand why."
Cooper sighed loudly again as an unrecognizable emotion suddenly seemed to flash across his features before his eyes narrowed in on me. He went from distraught to angry as quick as the snap of my fingers and it startled me.
"You want to talk about hiding things from each other?" He started to say as he took a small step towards me. "What about the fact that you lied about your family?"
"What on earth did I lie about?" I asked, confused as my eyebrows furrowed.
"I heard you and Ben talking in the alleyway," Cooper told me, which caused my entireface to fall slack. "When you guys didn't come back, I went out on the balcony. Why didn't you tell me any of that?"
"Don't you dare try to turn this around on me," I snapped as I subconsciously took an aggressive step forward. "The shit I have gone through is way more intense than a fucking exgirlfriend."
"That doesn't change the fact that you told Benjamin instead of me."
I scoffed as I shook my head and rolled my eyes before taking a deep breath. Turning to look at Cooper, I wore a look of disbelief.
"Do you want to know why I told him? Because my mother showed up at the party and Benji just happened to wander outside when I was trying to get her to leave, and he pushed me to talk. Granted, yes, I wanted to unload, but he just happened to be the one to see her and be therefor me in that moment."
Cooper rolled his eyes as he folded his arms over his chest again. "Do you know howmuch fucking work I have put into this relationship? Into being patient with you and not pushing you to tell me shit? I have been nothing but understanding and supportive, never given you asingle reason to feel like you can't talk to me."
"Oh, and I have?" I fired back as I mimicked his posture before I stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay, we aren't getting anywhere with this."
Ticking my jaw, I turned and walked over to the couch and sat down. Putting my head in my hands for a brief moment, I pushed all the hair away from my face before looking over at Cooper sadly.
"Look, I'm sorry that I never told you any of that. I have been keeping that to myself since I was a teen. It's not that easy to talk about a trauma like that when you've suppressed it forso long and plus, it's not just me that's involved," I ended in a whisper.
"Alright, fine. Let's just forget that for a moment. Even if you couldn't tell me, why did you lie about having three brothers? What's the point in that?"
"I lived with my Aunt and Uncle for a while," I told him, defensively. "They were my cousins, but they may as well have been my brothers. Hell, I call my Aunt and Uncle my momand dad. We can sit here and play technicalities all night, but the fact of the matter is we both lied and now you know why I did. What's your real excuse?"
"I already told you," Cooper snapped as he came to stand behind the back of the chair. "Iwas ashamed of the fact that I dated her."
