LOVE TO HATE YOU

A magic invisible whip...

It was Ben.

But how? But what? But... what the hell was going on?

I froze. My heart felt like it stopped beating and I was going into full-blown organ failure. My eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for an exit strategy, or a place to hide before he saw me. But when I turned, Miss Milky Way had also started walking in my direction.

I turned and looked back in Ben's direction and when I did, he saw me. The moment that passed between us was more intense than anything that we'd shared so far. He looked from me to Li-Hau's mom and back, and the look that rushed over his face was one of indescribable panic.

Li Hau's mother started making a faster approach and suddenly Ben was on the move too, straight towards me. They both descended at the exact same time and my heart stopped.

"Hi, I'm Ben," he said, making a point of sticking out his hand in my direction as Li-Hau's mother came into earshot.

Now my heart really stopped beating.

"I'm Li-Hau's dad," he persisted. "So you're the Snow White I've heard so much about." He smiled at me, widening his eyes. I could see he was desperately trying to communicate with me. The message was clear.

Play along.

What the hell was I in the middle of?

"I.. I...," I stuttered.

Ben jumped in, talking to Li-Hau's mom now. "So Snow White is real after all." He smiled at her and then turned back to me. "Sorry, I didn't get your name?" He looked freaked out, but was trying to hide it—and not that well.

"S..Sera," I stuttered.

"Nice to meet you. This is Mei, my daughter's mother."

He emphasized the word daughter as if I hadn't caught on yet.

"I told you, Daddy. She's real," Li-Hau said again.

"Yes you did." He reached down and put his arm around her.

This was Superdad?

I couldn't speak, I could barely breathe. Ben had just pulled me into one of the biggest lies I'd ever been privy too. Clearly he was still with her mother. That was surely the only possible explanation for his behavior and this level of deception. He'd had an affair with me and now he was desperately trying to cover his tracks and I was unknowingly caught up in all of it.

"Well thanks for coming," he said to me. "Li hasn't stopped talking about you."

He said it like that was some kind of consolation prize. Like that should make me happy in some way.

"So, Sera?" her mother spoke again. "How long have you lived at Killarney Gardens?" She was looking directly at me and I was unraveling under her gaze.

"About two years."

"Ben just moved in there," she said, turning to look at Ben.

He nodded. "Yes. It's a nice place."

This was the worst, most awkward conversation of my entire life. I was dying more with every question and every lie uttered for an answer. "It is," I said. "Nice gardens"—I was making this shit up as I went along.

"Yes, that's where you met Li," Ben said.

Mei shot Ben a filthy look. "You let her go to the garden by herself?" She stared daggers at Ben and he looked like his world was about to explode, shatter and collapse into a black hole.