Lie To Me

Lie To Me-Chapter 143

With Bree quietly helping alongside, I finished getting dinner ready, transferring the rest of our orders from the take-out containers onto real plates. We lit the candles on the table, and she got another bottle of wine from the cooler.

"Should we let Harry know it's all ready?" Bree's soft question interrupted the thoughts filtering through my mind, and I gave her an evil look. "Oh, don't worry... I'll get him."

She giggled in return. "Go easy on him, Riley. He seems to really care about you."

I scoffed, "Yeah... He cares so much, he just can't help but lie to me all the time..." Shaking my head, I left the kitchen, making my way toward Harry's bedroom.

I nervously wrung my hands. Yes, a part of me was still very angry with him. Angry that he'd lied to me by omitting the whole truth, angry that he'd kept a secret from me, angry that he didn't trust me enough to be honest and up front about it all... But, along with that continued anger and frustration, came fear.

What if I was right? What if all of this really was because of some hidden attraction to Bree? What if the fantasy of being with Harry, being loved by him was...over? What if...?

When I first thought of how my interaction with Harry would go, I'd expected to just confront him. Just barge in and demand the truth. But, the truth scared me now. As I had unfortunately learned from many past experiences, the truth can hurt... A lot.

Reaching the door, I took a deep breath before turning the handle and walking inside. "Harry?"

I found him, sitting cross-legged on the bed, his fingers typing away on his phone, a soft smirk on his face. His head jerked at the sound of my voice, and he quickly locked his phone, dropping it into his lap.

"Riley," He half smiled.

"Who was that?"

"Excuse me? Who was what?" He looked around the room as if I'd been talking about someone standing there with us.

I pointed to his lap. "On your phone."

"Oh! Uh... Nobody... I was just...playing a game."

I looked at him, crossing my arms, not believing a single word. He was lying to me. Again.

"I told Bree she could stay." He gave me a soft smile with hopeful eyes, acting as though he'd just offered up an olive branch. Little did he know, that branch did nothing to help ease the tension between us...

My anger slowly built up again. "I know. She told me. Unlike you, she told me everything..."

He looked at me, trying to read my eyes, trying to figure out exactly what I'd meant by that statement. "I don't..."

"Just tell me, Harry... Was it before, or after she kissed you that you became so obsessed with her?" I interrupted him, my need for knowing the truth outweighing my fear of just what that truth might be.

That got him up off the bed...

"Jesus, Riley! Will you stop that?!?" He shoved his phone in his pocket. "I am NOT obsessed with her!!"

"Riiight..." I chuckled at him, shaking my head, "Because it's completely normal to spend half your time thinking about your girlfriend's best friend, wondering what she's up to. And it's completely normal to lie to your girlfriend about the fact that the very same best friend kissed you on the cheek the other night. Yep. Completely normal..."

He ran his hands through his hair, making steps to pace the floor in front of me. "I knew this was going to happen... I fucking KNEW it! That's why I didn't want her here, in the first place! I knew Bree was going to open her big mouth about something, anything she could use to her advantage, and I was going to be painted the 'bad guy' in the situation. I knew she was going to try to cause problems between us! And here she is! Playing the innocent best friend, while I become the asshole. She's the one that kissed me, but are we focusing on that? Nope!" He turned to face me, "Am I wrong here, Riley?"

I wanted to slap him. I wanted to scream. I wanted to pull my damn hair out. Was he being serious?!? Could he hear himself right now?!? Did he even realize how ridiculous he sounded?!?

"You're the only one making yourself out to look like an asshole right now, Harry. Bree has nothing to do with it. Hell, even the fact that she kissed you on the cheek has very little to do with it! What makes you look like an asshole right now, is the fact that you lied about it." I threw my hands up, "You had MORE than enough opportunity to tell me, and you didn't. So, why? Why didn't you say a damn word to me about it? Why keep it hidden?"

Shaking my head at the whole situation my anger began to fade again, replaced instead by the all-to-familiar feelings of uncertainty and fear, feelings that I, once again, was not enough for him...

"I..." I watched as the frustration in his eyes also faded. He looked tired, and worried, as if he was afraid to speak. "I don't know... I should have told you. I should have been up front and honest from the beginning. But... I guess... I guess, I was just scared. Scared that it would turn into this, that it would become some big fight. I don't want to fight with you, Riley. I love you..." He took the few steps that separated us, and opened his arms to me.

God, what I would've given to just lean into him... To just let him wrap his arms around me, to just cocoon myself in his warmth, and pretend like this was all just a bad dream.

But, I couldn't. I couldn't just pretend like everything was okay. I couldn't just ignore those voices in my head. I couldn't... If he'd lie to me about something this small, something this...innocent, as Bree put it, what would he do if he was in a situation where something had really happened? What if next time it wasn't my best friend merely giving him a kiss on the cheek to say thank you? What if it was one of his exes, or Ari, or someone like that? What if it was a REAL kiss? Would he try to hide it from me again? Would he lie about that too? I shook my head, tears threatening behind my eyes, and cleared my throat, trying to react as calmly as possible when my emotions were anything but...

"Anyway... Um... Dinner is ready."

With as much of a smile as I could muster, I looked at him, my heart aching at the pain in his eyes, and walked back out.