The Lie(72)

The best I can do is just encourage her to move out on her own at some point, without telling her exactly what Melissa is like. Melissa knows the kind of hell the both of us had to go through. No real friend would then blatantly go after another’s man like that, whether things had ended badly or not.

As the rest of the week goes by though, I find myself unable to bring it up with her, even though the sneaking around is starting to feel tiresome instead of exciting. When we go out to dinner together or to the pub or the movies, when we’re just strolling around the city, we try and pretend we are strictly platonic. London is a huge city but a small world all the same. Even though we both mess up from time to time, holding hands and stealing kisses in public, we’re both always so aware that someone could see us. And no, she’s not my student, but it’s still a risk.

That’s why when Friday rolls around, I’m borderline ecstatic. I’m taking her up to Edinburgh to meet the family, a place where we don’t have to be a secret, at least not in the present. I’m also nervous, anxious, and a whole slew of other things that has my heartrate a few notches above normal.

Natasha comes to my flat after her classes, just in time to see Shelly the dog walker take Winter out. She’ll be watching him in the flat while I’m gone, but the fuzzy bugger tends to panic whenever I pack up and leave. This way he just thinks he’s going for a walk and that I’ll be here when he returns, though I swear he gives me the stink-eye when he goes out the door.

Natasha is pacing through the drawing room, wringing her hands and gnawing on her lip.

“Are you a bundle of nerves too?” I ask her, amused to see her like this.

“Of course!” she exclaims. “I’m meeting your f*cking parents. And your brother. I’ve only heard about them all a million times.”

“Then you know by now that they’re lovely people,” I tell her, putting my arms around her waist and smiling down at her. “They’ll love you.”

“But they don’t know me,” she says. “They don’t know the real us.”

I sigh, closing my eyes. “I know. But they can’t.”

“They have to,” she says, and I open my eyes to see hers searching me in a wild dance. “Don’t you see? It’s not just meeting the family. It’s about living a lie.”

“We aren’t living a lie anymore.”

“Then what do we say?” she asks. “When they ask us how we met?”

“I told you. We stay vague. I met you years ago when you were working the short film festival in Edinburgh. That first day we met? That’s all true. That’s what we keep as our truth.”

“And then what?” she says, breaking away and walking to the window. “I…” She exhales heavily and looks down at her hands. “I’m not going anywhere, Brigs. This is just the beginning now. But in a few years? Then what? The truth—the whole truth—will come out.”

“Then we’ll deal with it then,” I tell her. “They don’t need to know everything, and certainly not all at once.”

She glances at me, worried. “You’re afraid to tell them. Why?”

“Because,” I tell her.

“You’re ashamed,” she says softly.

“No. Not of you. Not of this. Just…” I throw my hands out to the side. “You know how complicated this all is.”

“But your family is lovely, you said yourself. Your brother sounds like he has more issues than Charlie Sheen. Don’t you think they would all understand the truth? They wouldn’t blame you. It might even explain a lot to them.”

I rub my hand up and down my face in frustration. “When the time is right. This…I just want them to see you the way I see you. The way everyone should.”

“You mean not as the other woman.”

“You know what I mean,” I tell her quickly, coming over to her and taking her hand. “There is no other woman. There never was. It was only you. And I want them to see only you. Please. Just this once. We’ll figure out the future later.”

She nods. “Okay.”

I kiss the back of her hand. “Thank you.”

“I just hate lying. I could tell Melissa didn’t believe me when I told her I was going away.”

I stiffen. It’s suddenly hard to swallow.

“What?” I manage to get out.

She shrugs. “Well, I can’t tell her I’m going off with you. Like I told you before, she’s protective and she doesn’t like you. So I said I was going up to Glasgow with imaginary Bradley. Imaginary Bradley sure is getting a lot of action these days.” She glances at me. “You okay?”

I nod quickly, blinking. “Yes, sorry. I can imagine lying isn’t easy. Why can’t you tell her the truth again?”

“I guess because of the same reason you don’t want to tell your family. I don’t think she’d understand. And she wouldn’t believe any of it. She holds a grudge against you like you wouldn’t believe, and that grudge goes against me too.”

“I believe it,” I tell her, wondering if now is the moment. But then again, what do I say? Hey, by the way, your best friend has also been both hitting on me and threatening me in her spare time?

“Maybe she’ll be more understanding than you think,” I say. “She knows we’re both adults here.”