Page 35 of The Lie

No guesses where they came from. There was a similar arrangement waiting for me last night when I got home from work.

Tears sting my eyes when I reach down to pick them up. There’s a card attached, just like yesterday, which I’ve yet to read.

Today he sent me roses in every colour imaginable. They’re beautiful. I bury my nose in the petals and breathe in their sweet, delicate scent. For just a moment, everything doesn’t feel quite so heavy.

It’s crazy how quickly this stranger has come to mean something to me. I barely know him, yet somehow this feels an awful lot like heartbreak.

When I enter the house, I place the flowers on the dining room table beside the others. Between these, the ones from work, the neighbour, and Nanna’s friends from church, this place is starting to resemble a florist.

As much as I hate to admit it, I miss Bennett, and with every passing hour, the lines blur a little more. It’s getting harder and harder to stay mad at him.

Chapter 13

Bennett

The first face I see when I enter my mother’s kitchen is my brother’s. Thankfully, there’s no sign of that venomous snake he’s engaged to. If I had to sit opposite her tonight, I couldn’t promise I wouldn’t be tempted to reach across the table and throttle her scrawny neck. I’m fresh out of patience when it comes to her.

Five days have passed, and Poppy still has me blocked. I’ve been sending her flowers every day, along with notes, like some lovesick fool, but she’s still ghosting me.

To top things off, an envelope arrived at my office yesterday addressed to me. Inside was a cheque for two hundred dollars. I can only assume it’s her first repayment. I shoved it in my desk drawer. I’m sure there’ll be more to come, but I’ll never cash them.

“What’s up with you?” Nolan asks as I place a soft kiss on my mother’s cheek and grab a beer from the fridge.

“Nothing,” I lie, cracking the top and taking a swig.

“You sure? Because it looks like someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning. Trouble in paradise, big brother?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“How’s Pop?” he asks.

“Who’s Pop?” Mum chimes in as she stands next to Rosalita—the chef—who she was probably micromanaging before I walked in, because it’s what my mother does best.

“Nobody,” I answer.

“She’s his girlfriend,” Nolan singsongs.

When I hear my mother gasp, I glare at my brother over the neck of my beer. It’s the first time in years I’ve genuinely wanted to punch him in the face.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” I clarify, because it’s the truth. I almost did, but I fucked it up.

“Her name is Poppy,” Nolan says, turning his attention to Mum. “She’s a pretty blonde with a hot body and the most beautiful blue eyes. She’s in her last year of law school.”

I narrow my eyes, silently telling him to shut the fuck up. I don’t like hearing him describe her like that. But I keep my mouth shut because I know exactly what he’s doing. He’s trying to get a rise out of me, and I’m not about to give him one.

“Where’s Bridezilla?” I ask, trying to turn the conversation away from me.

“Bridezilla,” Mum snickers. “Good one.”

She hates Amanda even more than I do, if that’s possible.

“You two need to stop. No wonder she didn’t want to come tonight. You don’t exactly make her feel welcome.”

“I beg your pardon,” my mother chides. “I was more than accommodating to that woman the first few times you brought her here. It wasn’t until she showed her true colours that my opinion of her changed.”

Mum hit the nail right on the head. Even I liked Amanda in the beginning. My brother fell in love with the version of her she wanted us all to see, and once she had him hooked, she stopped pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

“She’s going to be my wife in a week’s time, and you two need to get used to that.”