I turned to face Matthew. He stood with a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was wet and water droplets were sliding down his chest. His eyes appeared guarded as they took in his phone, still in my hand.
"How could you?" I asked, feeling the hurt spread through me, making it impossible not to taint every memory I had of us together—our first night together up to this moment of betrayal.
"What are you talking about?" he said angrily as he stepped forward and yanked his phone from my grasp.
I watched while he read the message before he shook his head at me. His action made me angrier than before.
"Is that her name? Taylor?" I said, fighting to save some dignity.
"Who do you think Taylor is?" he asked, his voice calm, which only intensified my growing despair.
"Don't treat me like I'm stupid!" I yelled, tightening my fists.
My chest hurt and I could feel the sting of tears, but I held them off.
"Sarah," he said in that soothing voice he used to deal with me when I was feeling emotional.
I glared at him. "Don't you dare 'Sarah' me."
"This isn't what you think it is," he started, but it did nothing to ease the ache in my chest. "You think I'm cheating on you?"
I pressed my lips together as I continued to glare at him.
"Why?" he asked, stepping closer. He scanned my features as if he was trying to decipher something. "Have I given you any reason to believe I would?"
"You always take phone calls in another room," I stated, feeling the need to bring it out in the open. I didn't for one second believe I was some needy girl who was making a mountain out of nothing. "It feels like you're keeping something from me."
"So you assumed it was because I was calling another girl?"
I nodded.
"Why didn't you just ask?" His eyes held mine.
"I was scared of the answer," I got out.
He looked down at his phone and tapped the screen a few times. What was he doing?
"Here is Taylor," he said, giving me the phone.
I took it from him and looked down at the picture. The girl was beautiful, with shoulder-length platinum hair. She had striking blue eyes. She stood beside a guy with a tattoo sleeve who had one arm around her. He had midnight-black hair, and his blue eyes were looking at the girl in the photo with adoration.
"The guy with her is her boyfriend, Sin Carter."
I had jumped to conclusions and now I felt like an idiot. I handed the phone back.
"Taylor is my friend."
There was nothing I could say that would take back the accusation, but I mumbled, "I'm sorry."
He approached me and I dropped my eyes to the floor. He lifted my chin with a finger.
"She's been dying to meet you," he said.
"Really?" I looked at him with surprise. "You've told her about me?"
He nodded. He took my hand into his and pulled me closer.
"Would you like to meet her?"
I nodded. "Yes, I'd like that."
He hugged me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. His lips lingered like he didn't want to let go of me, and I wrapped my arms around him.
"We can go through to visit them next weekend."
The only friend of his that I had met was Mark and I was excited to meet his other friends. But still, none of this had explained away his need for privacy with phone calls. I ignored the thought.
****************
A week later we were on our way to meet his friends and I was happy but I couldn't stop the feeling of nervousness at the thought his friends might not like me.
"Do you think they'll like me?" I asked, feeling apprehensive about the meeting. Matthew meant a lot to me.
"Don't worry, they'll love you," he assured me. He took my hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
Despite his words I was still feeling nervous as I stood outside the door, waiting as Matthew knocked. He hadn't told me a lot about them but I was so excited to meet his friends that I hadn't cared. The door opened and a beautiful angelic-looking girl greeted me with the biggest smile. Her long platinum hair framed her small face and her bright blue eyes sparkled as she continued to smile with excitement. I remembered her from the photo. Taylor was even more beautiful in person.
"Hi," I greeted her. Matthew was standing just behind me.
"Come in," she gushed, giving me an unexpected hug. Even though the hug had taken me by surprise, I hugged her back.
My eyes took in the guy who was standing behind her. He was the total opposite to Taylor. He had a tattoo sleeve on one arm and a lip piercing. I wasn't one for tattoos, but they were beautiful. He was the boyfriend I recognized from the photo.
"Hi," he greeted me as I stepped into the apartment. They looked like complete opposites. Taylor looked like an angel. Sin Carter, with his black hair, piercings and tattoos, looked like a rebel who lived his life the way he wanted to whether it was against the rules or not.
As I greeted him it was hard to believe that people who were so different in appearance could look so happy together—and there was no doubt by the way that Sin looked at her that he was head over heels for her.
I didn't believe in love but it was hard to dispute when I took in the couple in front of me. The way they looked at each other, it was like no one else existed.
Taylor hugged Matthew.
"It's so good to see you," she said. "I liked it better when I saw you nearly every day."
Taylor and Sin were in college. Apparently that was how they met. Matthew had told me they had met in college and had become fast friends.
Matthew and Sin shook hands before we were ushered inside.
All had been going well and despite only meeting Taylor for the first time, I kept having the feeling that I knew her from somewhere. For most of the lunch I was trying to figure out why her name sounded so familiar. It was only later when we were finished eating when I had finally placed where I knew her from.
"Weren't you the girl who was kidnapped?" I blurted out. Matthew straightened up beside me and touched my hand with his. Taylor looked at me, a little shocked by my sudden question. Sin wrapped a protective arm around her.
They all looked at one another for a moment. The look on her face confirmed I was right.
"I thought I recognized you from somewhere," I added. It had been all over the news and at the time it had made my father even more nervous about my safety. I don't know if he had been scared more by the fact that we were the same age or by the fact that it had been local.
"My father is the district attorney and he'd been looking at the case before the guy had confessed," I explained further. He'd just gotten promoted when it had happened. My father wasn't allowed to discuss ongoing cases with me, but after the guy had confessed, he had told me about it.
There was an awkward silence.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," I said apologetically. I tended to say things without thinking.
"It's okay," she said, trying to give me a warm smile. This time it never reached her eyes.
Sin and Matthew shared a look and I had a feeling something more was going on that I didn't know about as I looked around the table.
"It must have been awful," I said, trying to remember all the details of it. I'd read she'd been taken from the scene of an accident.
"It was," she said softly. "But all that matters is that he's locked up."
"I don't think this is something Taylor wants to talk about," Matthew said, making me feel bad I'd brought it up.
So I let it go and Matthew steered the conversation to safer subjects.
Later, when we got back to my place, my inability to remember all the details of what had happened to Taylor had left me curious. I checked the story out on my laptop after Matthew had left. I googled her name and I found the article I was looking for. I read it and the missing parts began to fall into place.
There had been someone in the car with her at the time of the accident. Her bodyguard had been knocked unconscious when she'd been taken. The moment my eyes read over the name of person, it felt like I couldn't breathe. It felt like my heart had splattered onto the floor.
Matthew Weiss. He was a bodyguard.
**********
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