Page 68 of Aperture

“Sophia,” he says again. “What did he tell you about her?”

“He told me less than you just did,” I reply. “He never even used her name.”

I turn to go into the house and get away from this conversation, get away from the way my heart feels, and get away from this entire day.

Wyatt grabs my wrist and spins me around before I can get too far. I momentarily lose my balance and step back, caught by the door behind me. Wyatt steps up in my space, arms on either side of my face.

“Dammit, Millie, this is important. I NEED to know what he told you.” His chest is heaving as he stares into my eyes.

“He said you all knew each other, OK? He said you developed feelings for her. He said you drove her away and she disappeared.” I say it so fast it comes out like one long sentence. Now my chest is heaving and my eyes are tearing up. The last thing I want to be doing is talking about a woman who they both obviously care about.

“Fuck!” Wyatt yells and slams his hand against the wall next to my head, making me jump. He takes a deep breath and looks at me with pain in his eyes.

“Millie, listen to me. You have to listen to me. You don’t know the whole story.”

“Wyatt,” my lips quiver, “Don’t you understand? I don’t want to know the whole story.

It hurts me to think of you with someone else.”

He drops his arms to his sides and releases a pent up breath. “I don’t ever want to hurt you, Millipede. Ever,” he emphasizes. “I’m only telling you what you need to know.”

I hug my body. “I don’t understand why.”

Wyatt places his hand on my cheek and strokes it softly.

“I can’t tell you everything I want to tell you right now. I can’t. But I do need you to know that Theo’s version of what happened with Sophia is not what actually happened.”

“Then tell me, Wyatt.” I say softly.

“The situation was complicated,” he starts. “I met Sophia first. We became friends. I didn’t have any interest in her as anything other than a friend. That’s why I introduced her toTheo. I knew they would hit it off.” He pauses to make sure I’m still with him. I give him a small nod as if to say, "go on.”

“They started dating. The relationship was very intense, from the beginning. They obviously had a lot of passion and fire together. That also included their fights. More than once she came to me. She was scared, Millie.”

“She was afraid of him?” I ask.

“Yes, she became afraid of him. She told me that she had seen sides of him that she couldn’t understand. He was insecure and controlling. He was always worried she was going to leave him. It made him act a little crazy. I told her to leave, because I thought it would be better for both of them. Not because I wanted her.”

I gather the courage to ask the question that’s been nagging at me. “Did you sleep with her?

Again, he sighs. When he looks at me I can tell he’s fighting with himself, internally. He doesn’t want to continue, but if he needs me to understand this, he has to.

“Theo talked me into it.” He says flatly.

“What?” I ask incredulously. “What do you mean ‘Theo talked you into it?’ How does that even work?”

“Look, I’m not proud of it, but that’s what happened.”

He takes a step back and looks down at his shoes. After a moment, he continues. “He came to me and said it was a fantasy they had shared together. He said he trusted me. I knew it was a bad idea. I didn’t realize what would happen,” he admits.

“What happened, Wyatt?” It’s painful to hear this, but it would kill me not to hear it.

He continues. “We all agreed to do it once. Sophia and I talked about it. She had her reservations, but she said she loved him and wanted him to be happy,” he says, shaking his head at the memory. “She thought if we did this, and she was still with him, he would let go of some of his insecurities.” After a moment he continues. “While we were together, he was watching us. It wasn’t normal the way he was watching us, Millie. He looked at us like we were doing something wrong. He got jealous. He got angry. Afterward, he started yelling about how he knew she always wanted me and that this was a test. He said we failed him, like everyone always did.”

Wyatt’s voice is cracking, like this memory is tearing him apart. “We both got scared and got dressed and left. I took Sophia home. I told her to relax and that I would talk to him when he calmed down. Then I left. No one has seen her since.”

“Theo said you drove her out of town.”

“No, that’s not what happened. I’m telling you, I drove her home and told her I would come by the next day to check on her, and when I did, she was gone.”