Her eyes narrow. “The whole point of all this was to torment her and make her life hell, so I don’t know why you’re so mad about this stupid video.”
“You made me look like a fucking idiot.”
“Only to her,” Anae states. “No one else thinks your girlfriend went through your phone and put your balls in her purse. The only person who could possibly see it that way is Aubrey, and who cares what she thinks?”
She’s fucking got me there. The way she did this, she didn’t make me look bad. She only made Aubrey look bad.
“She’s not going to fuck me now,” I state, shaking my head. “She thinks I gave you the picture. She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“She’s mad right now. She’ll calm down,” she says dismissively, reaching out and running her hand down my chest. “You’ll reassure her that I stole the photo—which I did—and you’re so sorry, and she’s so special to you,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Trust me, this won’t get in the way of you fucking her.”
“You put doubt in her head about me,” I state.
“Did I?” She feigns innocence. “Oops.”
I push her hand off me. “I don’t fucking like that.”
“I don’t see why it matters,” she says, watching me carefully. “You don’t really like her. This is just a game. Right?”
“It matters because you undermined me. You went behind my back, and you kept me in the dark about what you were doing. I didn’t even know about the video until she texted me about it. What makes you think I want to keep playing games with someone who plays like that, hm? Why shouldn’t I say fuck your game and walk away right now?”
“Simple. You want to fuck her. This way, you get to.”
Her cockiness pisses me off, and I really want to knock her down a peg. “I don’t need to play with you to fuck her, Anae. I can dump you right now, and then I can go fuck her later tonight without any problems. Maybe it’d be nice to be with a girl who doesn’t play fucked up games with me for a change.”
Anae stiffens. “I wouldn’t advise it.”
I bet she wouldn’t. After the video she posted, getting her ass dumped and me going to Aubrey would make her look dumb as fuck.
I smirk. “Doesn’t feel so good to be on that side, does it?”
“Look, I’m sorry I went through your phone,” she says. “I should have asked, but… you lied to me, and it threw me. I wasn’t trying to one-up you or make you feel stupid.”
“Bullshit.”
“I wasn’t,” she insists.
“Yes, you were. Don’t fucking lie to me. I know how you work. You got it in your head that I might actually like Aubrey and you had to get ahead of it, even if it meant blowing us up in the process.”
That actually gets through to her because deep down, she knows that’s exactly what happened.
Now that I’ve landed a hit, I don’t let her have a chance to recover.
“You went through my phone like some insecure, basic-ass girlfriend. What the fuck is that, Anae? If I wanted to date a normal girl, I would. I thought you were different.”
Because I took a swing at her own idea of herself—Anae thinks she is supremely different—I make contact.
She swallows and looks down guiltily. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I told you I was working on this girl, and I thought we had an understanding that how I went about that was up to me. If I don’t do this my own way, I don’t do it at all.”
“I just… You’ve been leaving me out,” she says. “I thought we were going to do this together. I thought you would tell me things. I don’t care if you fuck her, you know I don’t care about that, but the secrecy concerned me. It’s just not what I expected.”
I shake my head, looking off in the distance.
“I’m sorry,” she says softly, because she knows she stands a better chance at forgiveness if she pouts. Wrapping her arms around me and leaning her head on my shoulder, she asks, “Forgive me?”
I sigh like I have to think about it. “You’ve gotta delete that fucking video,” I tell her, but I’m calm this time. “I told her I’d get it done, and right now, I need to buy some goodwill just to get her to talk to me again.”
“Fine,” she says, easing back and taking her phone out of her handbag. I watch as she opens the app, then I watch her delete the video.
Some of the tension in my shoulders eases. The damage has been done, but at least it won’t keep circulating. “Thank you.”
She nods and slips her phone back into her bag. “I’ll have to make a post and pretend it got taken down for going against community standards or something. What are you doing later? Maybe I can come over, we can shoot something on the beach around sunset.”