The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 31

The next couple weeks crawled along at a snail's pace, probably because I was counting the days until I'd see Shawn again. We talked almost every day, and things were good between us. The topic I wanted to address lingered at the back of my mind, but he never said anything that made my worries get worse.

All that changed after his Miami show.

I woke up on the Sunday following the concert and reached for my phone to see if Shawn texted. He usually sent a message or two along with some pics after he exited the stage to let me know how it went. Oddly, I had no notifications.

Whether you call it woman's intuition or paranoia, my gut told me to check social media. I searched #shawnmendes on Instagram and went to the recent posts. Almost all of them had the same photos and videos, which were of Camila dancing at his Miami show in the same in the spot on the side of the stage that I'd occupied in Las Vegas.

I took a deep breath. They were friends. Friends attend each other's concerts to be supportive. It didn't mean anything more than that. Or did it? I examined the photos closely. Camila seemed light and happy, and I envied the confidence she radiated. She looked very sexy, and I suspected that it was all for Shawn.

I knew that either Briya or Fallon would text me soon because they were all over any hot celebrity gossip. I considered turning my phone off for an hour or two so that I could process what I'd seen in peace, but that meant I'd miss any texts or calls from Shawn.

Fallon messaged me first in our group chat.

How's it going?

I replied a second later.

I saw the pics and I'm trying not to make too much of it.

They are friends.

Briya chimed in next.

Exactly!

No need to get your panties in a bunch

Good thing you weren't at the show

That would have been awkward

She was right. It would have been uncomfortable for everyone, especially Shawn. Camila might not know about our thing, but she'd probably wonder who the girl dancing next to her was, and when we were all backstage together, he'd be put in the strange position of interacting with each of us in a way that didn't impact the other. It was good he said I couldn't attend, though I wished he'd been honest about why. If he'd told me she was going to be there, it would have struck a jealous nerve, but finding out this way was far worse.

I turned down the girls' invitation to brunch and instead made myself some coffee which I ate with some chocolate babka from the bakery. I was three pieces in when my phone vibrated. It was face down, and before picking it up, I whispered, "Please be Shawn."

It wasn't. It was an auto-message from my OB/GYN reminding me that I had an appointment on Tuesday, which I'd scheduled so that I could finally go on the pill. I sent a '1' to confirm and went back to cramming calories in my mouth.

To kill time, I trimmed Inky's nails, tidied up the apartment, changed my sheets, and sent my granny in Windsor an email since that was her preferred form of communication. I thought about popping in to help out at the bakery, but my dad could read me like a book, and I wasn't in the mood to have a conversation about this. He considered Shawn my boyfriend, and I'd never corrected him since he wouldn't approve of a casual sexual relationship.

Around two in the afternoon, I picked up my phone to text Shawn just to say hi. I didn't want him to think I'd seen the pics of Camila and was freaking out over them. My intuition kicked in again and I did the same search that I'd done earlier on IG before sending the message. A whole new batch of photos were now at the top, and they caused my jaw to drop.

Shawn had apparently gone over to Camila's home to visit with her and their dog, Tarzan. I knew how much he loved the adorably goofy golden retriever, and I'd noticed that he had several framed photos of himself with the dog in his condo.

The first images were of Shawn arriving at the house, presumably in a rental car. Camila came out with the dog and my heart clenched at how thrilled Shawn was to see his pup. In the majority of the photos, they were in the yard, sitting on a blanket on the grass with Tarzan lolling between them. They appeared to be talking, because their mouths were open in a lot of them. Their expressions were serious in some, but they were smiling in others.

All of the pics could be interpreted as completely innocent except for two. The first showed them hugging, and Camila's head was nestled under Shawn's chin. The other was of them going inside her house. There were no photos of him exiting, so for all I knew, he was still there.

It was possible that they were unaware that they were being photographed because neither ever looked in the direction by of the camera. As much as the images bothered me, I was also unsettled by the fact that their privacy had been invaded. Sure it gave me lots of information, but if I were in their shoes, I'd hate to be exploited that way.

I looked at when everything had been posted and it appeared that the news of their reunion broke about an hour before I saw them. The fan reactions were predictable and many were rejoicing in the possibility that 'Shawmila' was back together.

That night, my besties showed up at my door with a bottle of cheap tequila and some street tacos from our favorite food truck. "We're doing shots," Fallon said as she entered my apartment. "After a couple of those, we're figuring this shit out."

"There's nothing to figure out," I lamented after shot number one. "I know they hooked up."

The thing that cinched this in my head was that when Shawn finally emerged from Camila's home, he was shirtless and there appeared to be a mark on his neck, like a fresh hickey. The fans and every media source were having a field day.

"You still haven't heard from him?" Briya asked when she refilled our glasses for round two.

"No. That makes him look even guiltier, don't you think? Although he's technically not guilty of anything since we aren't exclusive."

We did our shots together and I started feeling slightly buzzed. Two hours later, I was stupid drunk and not in the cute or playful way. I was angry.

"You know what a real man would have done?" I said loudly. "A real man would have the fucking balls to be open about his feelings for his ex with the girl he was currently banging. But no...this asshole had to make me fall in love with him!"

"The audacity!" Bri exclaimed.

"Calm your tits for a sec, Lucy," Fallon directed. "You don't know anything yet. When you talk to him, ask him outright if anything happened with Camila. Until you hear his side, you need to be chill."

"Look at the evidence! He was with her all fucking day! She was at his concert last night! Something is going on!"

"I'm not saying it isn't a possibility, but you're wasting your energy getting upset before you need to," she countered.

"Then why did you bring over tequila?" I asked her.

"Because I knew you needed to talk, but so far all you're doing is ranting. It's not his fault you fell so hard, and like you remind us all the damn time, he's not your boyfriend."

"You love playing the devil's advocate, don't you?" I said bitterly.

Fallon frowned. "I just want you to look at this from all sides. If they are back together, I'm here to comfort you, but we don't know anything yet."

Just then, my phone started vibrating. I picked it up and saw it was Shawn. "You know what? I'm about to find out the truth," I told my friends before answering it.