Sidequest for Love by L.H. Cosway

Now she frowned. “What are you talking about? Of course he …” she trailed off as she stared at me for a long, long moment, the penny finally dropping. There was a flash of horror in her eyes, and my gut sank. She glanced out the window, fidgeted with her hands, then turned back to me, leaning closer and lowering her voice.

“Do you mean to tell me that you’re the one I’ve been messaging with all this time?”

I nodded. “I’m so sorry. Callum has me reply to all his messages, but before I knew it, we were having these full-blown conversations, and I didn’t know how to come clean to you.”

Annabelle’s eyes narrowed with a quick, brief flash of fury. “You could’ve told me the truth at any time.”

“You’re right. I could have. But I found I liked you so much that I didn’t want to lose your friendship. I feared that if you knew the real me, you wouldn’t be interested.”

At this, she studied me intently but didn’t say anything for almost a full minute. It was clear she was thinking very hard, sorting through the information.

“Is this why you went quiet on me for weeks?” she finally asked.

I nodded, and silence fell yet again. I eyed her anxiously, dying to know what she thought. Across the café, I met Afric’s gaze, and she widened her eyes pointedly as if to say, Stop looking at me and focus on her!

Annabelle lowered her head, closed her eyes, and inhaled a deep breath. Then, she opened her eyes and looked right at me. I was shocked when she gave me a small smile. “You’re wrong, you know. Yes, I would’ve been mad that you’d been lying to me, but I wouldn’t have been uninterested.”

I blinked at her. “You wouldn’t?”

“Of course not. You’re cute.”

“I am?”

She nodded, and a strange warmth filled my chest. She thought I was cute? She wouldn’t have been uninterested? Perhaps my lack of self-confidence had been misplaced. It gave me a boost to know I wasn’t quite as unnoticeable and bland to the opposite sex as I thought I was.

I cleared my throat. “Well, thank you, that’s very kind, but I still can’t justify what I did. It’s inexcusable, and I can’t apologise enough for not responding to your messages these past few weeks. You have no idea how awful I feel about that. It’s why I asked to meet with you today. I wanted to finally be honest with you face to face. It’s the least you deserve. I can never undo what I did, but I can at least offer you the respect of being truthful.”

Annabelle arched an eyebrow. “So, that’s it? You came here to tell me the truth and walk away?”

“Well, yes. Obviously, you’d never possibly be interested in anything more after the way I lied.”

“What if I am interested?” she blurted.

Uh, what?

She reached across the table to take my hand in hers. “Neil, I might’ve thought you were Callum all this time, but that doesn’t change the fact that you were the one I was talking to. You were the one whose messages I looked forward to. The one whose personality made me laugh and smile and brightened my days.”

My mouth wouldn’t work. Shock. I had to be in shock. I’d been so convinced that once she discovered I wasn’t Callum, she’d run a mile. But she hadn’t. Not yet, anyway. She was still sitting across from me, staring at me with wide, kind eyes. “I looked forward to your messages, too,” I said at last.

“I have a bold suggestion.”

“Oh?”

She squeezed my hand. “How about we put the lies behind us and start fresh?”

“So, you want to—”

“I want to date you, Neil.”

Her statement soothed a wound deep inside me, one whose presence I hadn’t been completely aware of. Annabelle accepting that I wasn’t Callum and wanting to give me a chance bolstered my confidence. It healed an infection that had been festering, made me feel like I had worth. And that was probably why I replied with a simple, “Okay, yes.”

Afric

I watched Neil and Annabelle from across the café, and a brick sank in my belly. From all outward appearances, she seemed to be taking his confession rather well. I realised belatedly that some part of me hadn’t wanted her to take it well. I wanted her to storm out and say that she never wanted to hear from him again. That way, Neil and I could resume our friendship without her shadow looming over it.

But that wasn’t to be.

They were over there chatting away, the conversation flowing like any successful first date. Jealousy swarmed within me, an expanding, shadowy beast. I was suspicious, too. Something about the ease with which she’d taken Neil’s revelation made me wary. Any normal person would’ve at least yelled or displayed some form of indignation. But not Annabelle. She was taking this all in stride, and I wasn’t entirely convinced it was genuine.

Then again, that could’ve just been my jealous shadowbeast talking.

I’d decided to go easy on Neil and act like his advances last night were nothing out of the ordinary. He was clearly chagrined by his actions, and for once, I didn’t feel like teasing him. The truth was, I couldn’t stop thinking about his words and the lustful way his eyes had consumed me.

I wanted him to look at me like that again. Instead, he was over there with Annabelle, the two of them getting on like a house on fire.