Blame Gravity

Chapter 17

We go to see the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the Natural History Museum and we also briefly visit Borough Market. We eat fish and chips, and when we walk past the flower shop and I stop to smell them, James whispers something to one of the employees, and a few minutes later, he pays for a quite beautiful bouquet of flowers. He smiles like an idiot and hands them to me.

"M'lady," he says as he gives me the flowers.

"For me...?" I whisper, shocked. I recognize geraniums, foxglove, yellow carnations, and two other flower types of which I don't know the name. I breathe in the sweet scent.

He smiles, leans close to me, and whispers in my ear. "It means 'fuck you' in flower language."

I smack him on the face with the flowers and walk over to Mr. Simmons, who hasn't even noticed our stop and kept walking.

When we get back to the motel, we get ready for bed, and as soon as I walk out of the bathroom, I immediately hear my phone ring. I quickly pick it up.

"Hey, beautiful!" I hear from the other end of the line. "How are you doing?"

Shit. Mike.

"Yeah, great. You?"

"Me too. Um, how's London?"

"It's uh..." I look at James, as he's grinning at me mockingly, and I smile. "It's great. We're-... I'm having a lot of fun."

"And, how's James? Have you two ripped each other apart yet?"

As James bursts out laughing, I shoot a furious glance at him.  "No, we haven't been fighting that much, lately."

"Okay, well, just don't become too close, okay?" he jokes, but I can sense the authority in his voice. I shiver. I hope he isn't angry at me.

"Yes, of course." It stays silent for a moment, and I notice James staring at me, serious. I decide to ignore him.

"Okay. Well, that's all. Love you, bye!"

I freeze. What the fuck? We've been dating for, like, a month! Why does he say that?!

I'm about to say something, but he already hung up. I stay like that for a few moments, frozen in time, unable to move, speak, or breathe. Then, I look at James. He's stood up, and he's smiling.

"Did he just say he loves you?" he smirks.

"I... I think so." I touch my cheeks, and I feel that I'm blushing furiously. 

James steps closer to me. "But you don't."

"How would you possibly know that?" I breathe.

"Because you said it, what, two days ago?" He takes another step. 

"Perhaps I changed my mind."

"Perhaps." He takes one more step. He's way too close, and I feel a strange sense of comfort at his nearness. "But then you would have said it back."

My heart is beating like crazy, and I feel so, so terrible. I mean, Mike just told me he loves me, and now I want to kiss James? That's fucked up! 

I decide to ignore my feelings and stare him coldly in the eye. "You don't know that."

"Oh, I think I do, Canmore. I know more about you than all of these people. I know more about you than fucking Mike." 

"What are you trying to say?" I whisper.

"That he's a terrible boyfriend. And you're a terrible girlfriend. Perfect couple." With that, he steps away and walks back to the bed.

I feel anger brewing inside me. "How dare you tease me like that, Miller," I spit. "And if we're talking about terrible people, you're just as terrible as me. We both cheated on our partners, and we're both responsible for it."