Page 73 of Tattoo My Heart
“What’s that?” I whisper when he stops talking and just stares at me.
“What I did was wrong, there’s no doubt about that. It was an innocent game I was playing on my part, and I thought we’d all be laughing when I finally told you it was me.”
And now I am back to being angry with him.
“There was nothing innocent about that, Cal,” I yell at him again. “You literally played with me while I had no idea it was you.”
“Okay,” he nods in understanding. “But just think about this for a minute, Evie. You actually emailed another man and asked him to take you out while letting me fuck your brains out.”
His crude words make me blush furiously. They are a fresh reminder of what we just did in the very spot we are currently standing in, and also in my small bathroom. I may never be able to use the toilet again without seeing me and Cal against the sink, going at it like nothing else in the world matters.
“You purposely planned to deceive me,” he continues.
I shake my head in confusion. I was so lost in the things I was seeing in my head, I now don’t understand where he’s going with this.
“What do you mean? I was messaging you.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “But you didn’t know it was me. You thought you were messaging a total stranger. Asking him to take you to a party where you knew I’d be there. You were looking to deceive me. On purpose.”
My eyes about fall out of my head at his statement. I don’t even know what to say. I am still staring when he takes two steps forward to get closer to me. He brings his hand up and wraps it around the back of my head, in a move that I love so much.
“I’ll give you all the space you need, baby,” he whispers against my lips. “But do me a favor and think about this from my perspective as well.”
He presses his lips gently against mine, and then, he is gone. I hear the click of the door closing behind him, but I never move from my spot.
I turn his last words over and over in my head until nothing else makes sense anymore. On shaky legs, I finally step to the couch and drop on it. I’m not sure what to think of this anymore.
In the corner of my eye, I notice that my cell phone is sitting on the side table. I reach out and grab it, then, without hesitation, I call my best friend.
“Evie.” She sounds happy to hear from me. “Are you calling me with an update on your love life? Because, about time,” she teases.
“It was him.” I speak softly into the phone. “On the app,” I explain when I realize that I’m not making any sense.
“Who was?” Carrie gasps in shock, and she doesn’t even know who I’m talking about yet.
“Cal.” Now my voice sounds shaky, and like I am about to cry.
“Cal is the guy you were messaging with on the app?” Her voice is squeakier with each word coming out of her mouth. Under normal circumstances, I would laugh.
“Yes,” I confirm. “I just found out. And now we’re fighting, and… we are over.”
While I never saw a real future with Cal, I am completely heartbroken at the knowledge that I’ll never be with him again.
“Start from the beginning and don’t skip over anything,” Carrie instructs in a brisk tone.
I spend the next ten solid minutes going over my entire relationship with Cal. It’s not long, only weeks, but it feels like we’ve been together forever. I don’t want it to end.
That last thought is sobering.
“Okay, so let’s see if I understand what’s happening here,” Carrie interrupts my inner musings and starts fact checking. “Cal got onHolidatesonly because he knew you were on there.”
“Yes.”
“And it is because he wanted you to choose him to go to your parents’ party with.”
“Yes,” I confirm again.
“And all this time that you thought you were messaging that dude, it was actually Cal,” she asks for clarification.
