Love Between the Lines ✔️ DRAFT 1 COMPLETE

Chapter 19

The next minutes went by slower than pouring molasses. Catriona sat on the bed in silence, waiting for me to say something. Anything. But the words wouldn't come. And when they did, my throat restricted sending a sharp pain down to my stomach. The tears that formed in my eyes blurred my vision, which in a way was good because it meant I couldn't see the guilt I hoped was on Catriona's face.

"Em, please say something," my friend—although I wasn't sure if I wanted to call her that anymore—pleaded. She reached out a slender hand toward me but I snatched mine away.

"There is nothing I can say to you right now, Catriona." Ice crept into my voice. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that maybe it would right all the wrongs of the past few minutes. Maybe this was a dream. A really bad dream. If I opened them again, it would be me and Catriona laying on the bed again, gushing over my time in Scotland.

But instead I was met again with Catriona's pleading face. Pink tinged her cheeks as if she felt shameful, guilty for spilling the secret she had been keeping from me.

Rightfully so.

"Just so you know," she said quietly, "Fionn had nothing to do with this."

I scoffed. "Right." With my luck, she was probably saying that to make me feel better. I got up from the bed and began throwing things into my suitcase.

"Em, what are you—"

"It's Emilie!" I yelled at her. "You don't get to call me 'Em' anymore." It was the same thing I'd told Fionn when we were fighting before we got together. A childish thing to do, but I didn't care. I'd been played.

Oh God, had this all been a lie? Had it all been a ruse to see if Fionn could land the heartbroken American fresh out of an 8-year long relationship?

"Emilie." Her voice softened. "Please don't blame Fionn for this. Blame me, okay?"

"So you didn't know about me and Kyle breaking up before I sent the email reply to you in December?" I asked.

Catriona shook her head. "No! I swear I didn't know." She paused, biting her lip. "Well actually, I did know. You'd changed your Facebook status and I hadn't heard anything from you so I put two and two together and...Emilie, I'm so sorry. I just knew how hard you work and thought you might deserve a break. I had no idea about Kyle which is why I never thought this trip would have unintended consequences."

"Then you just lied to me."

Tears brimmed her eyes. "I-I'm so so sorry, Emilie."

I eyed her carefully.

"Please," she begged me.

Maybe her heart had been in the right place. Maybe she really didn't think that I'd fall for Fionn. But why...

"Why didn't you just tell me that?" My voice softened only slightly. My body itched to get out of this room, to confront Fionn and find out the truth. "Why did you feel like you had to hide it? And why not tell Fionn?"

She ran a hand through her hair, tugging on the ends. "I wanted it to be something special, and it backfired. I didn't tell Fionn because, well, I didn't think it would make a difference. He's here to help train the renters and it wasn't going to be any different except that you have more experience than most. If anything, I thought maybe you'd get a friend out of the trip since I couldn't be here most of the time. And you both deserved to find a friend."

Silence fell between us, like an ocean separating the continents, and I felt further away from her in both emotion and physicality.

"For what it's worth," she continued, "I'm not sorry I did it. But I am sorry for the trouble it caused."