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“You’ve got a little something right here.” Alice gestures at the corner of her mouth, and Theo’s hand comes up to his. When I look over at him, I see a red stain from my lipstick. His cheeks go pink as he realizes what it must be. I take the cloth napkin from my side and make a show of scrubbing the edge of his mouth.
“Busted. You guys can see exactly how the time got away from us.” My tone is overly suggestive, but my laugh is genuine.
Once I’ve gotten all the lipstick off his face, we settle back into our seats with ease. Theo’s arm wraps around the back of my chair in that possesive-guy way Ben won’t like, and I lean my back against his arm. Alice eyes us with amusement, a tilt to her lips that makes me think she might be happy for us. Ben, however, is looking at everything inside the restaurant but us.
“Wow,” Alice marvels at Theo and me. “You know, when Christine told me you guys left the engagement party together, I had no idea what to think.” She shakes her head, as if she still doesn’t. “But you guys actually look really cute together.”
“Thank you.” My voice is steady, but the gratitude is entirely fake. I can feel Theo’s eyes on me like a question, but I don’t turn to look at him. “No one’s more surprised than me, believe me.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Ben says, eyes trained down on his menu. Alice nudges him with an elbow, but he doesn’t seem to register it.
“Can’t you just be supportive for once in your life?” The entire table looks up at Theo. Ben finally meets his brother’s glance, his widened eyes the only show of surprise. “Why is that so hard for you?”
But Ben is stopped from answering his brother’s loaded question when our waiter comes to take our order. I’m the only one ready to order, but we tell him we need more time to decide. Instead of opening their menus to make that decision, Ben and Theo continue as if nothing happened.
“Don’t kid yourself. We both know this isn’t gonna last.” Even though he’s speaking to Theo, the words land on me like a physical blow, despite knowing what Theo and I have is far from real. But maybe that’s why they sting: because he’s so much closer to the truth than he even realizes. “You don’t have the first clue about what real relationships are like.”
“Ben, don’t—”
“You, of all people, can’t possibly tell me I’m wrong.” Ben turns to Alice, using a tone I’ve never heard him use with her. It’s cutting and sarcastic and not at all like him. But Alice doesn’t even seem fazed. Her shoulders slump in a resigned way, and her eyes roll just before they shut closed. She shakes her head to herself, almost like this is a conversation she’s had before. Like it’s one she’s tired of hearing.
“You’re the one who knows him better than anyone else at this table. Do you really think—”
“Ben, stop.” Heads turn around to eye us at Theo’s raised voice. Some wear startled expressions, others openly glare, and some even ogle us like we’re dinner entertainment. His eyes are hard as they stare his brother down, the two locked in a silent battle. My stomach drops, replaced with a sinking dread. I’m missing something key here, something staring at me straight in the face. I just don’t know what it is.
When the waiter stops by a second time, I order two plates of chicken parmesan for myself and Theo. Then I take his hand and intertwine our fingers. He looks down at me, expression softening immediately.
“We can leave,” I tell him, because suddenly this table is the last place I want to be. “I didn’t know—” I take in a breath, shaking my head. Ben’s eyes are on us, and it’s making me over-warm. I didn’t know it would be this bad. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I shouldn’t have made you.”
“Marcela, don’t go,” Ben tells me. “There’s something you need to know about my brother. If you’re going to keep seeing him, which I’ve already told you multiple times is a bad idea.”
“And telling her who she can and can’t date isn’t?” Alice says suddenly, the question posed more as a statement. Her voice is calm and carefully measured, eyes cutting on her fiancé. Another conversation they’ve had before.
“This is different, and you know it.” But he’s not looking at her. His eyes are trained on his brother’s. “She deserves to know what she’s getting herself into, don’t you think?”
“Theo?” I squeeze his hand, trying to anchor him to me, but he’s not looking at any of us. His chest rises and falls with quick breaths, his other hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist beneath the table. He rises from his seat, breaking contact with me. Before anyone can say anything else, he walks straight out of the restaurant. Ben has the nerve to look smug as he watches Theo’s back. I narrow my eyes on him, hating myself for how stupid I’ve been. Is this really the same guy I’ve been pining over for almost a decade?
“What the hell was that about?” It takes everything in me not to scream at him. As it is, we’ve already made an audience for the other dinner guests.
“He’s in love with my fiancée.” For a moment, all I can do is stare at him, dumbfounded. They know. Alice is pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes shut. “He has been for years. That’s what I’ve been trying to warn you about.”
My mouth opens, but I can’t think of a single thing to say, aside from the question ringing in my head I can’t ask either of them. You knew all along?
“There was no reason for you to be a dick about it,” I say instead, then leave the table to catch up to Theo.
There’s no sign of him outside the restaurant, or any of the surrounding shops. The straps of my low heels are digging into my skin the longer I walk, until I’m forced to shuck them. Theo is nowhere to be seen. The cobbled courtyard is speckled with a few pedestrians ambling around and chatting on benches. I duck my head as I take a seat at the edge of a fountain and pull out my phone. When the call goes straight to voice mail, I curse under my breath. I know he wouldn’t leave me behind, not after what he said yesterday, but I wish I knew how to help him.
The edge of a shadow crosses my vision, but when I look up, it’s only Alice. I place a hand over my chest as she takes the spot next to me. “You scared me.”
“He’ll be back,” she says. “He’s not the abandoning type. He probably just needs to clear his head.”
“If you say so,” I say, hating suddenly how well she knows him. He said once he’s never been able to deny her anything. That’s why he’s never abandoned her, but the same can’t be said for me.
But that’s not what I’m worried about right now, even though I should know better after last week. I’m more worried about how Theo’s feeling. I should never have let Alice push me into this, and I never should’ve pushed Theo further than he was willing to go. Clearly, he was right to be worried.
“Why did you ask me to bring him tonight?” I snap at her, even though part of me knows she doesn’t deserve it. “You had to have known something like this would happen.”
“Believe me, I didn’t think it’d get this out of hand,” she says calmly. “You don’t know how hard I’ve worked to get Theo and Ben to repair their relationship. It’s exhausting enough without Ben making things worse.”
