Page 6 of How To Resist Mr. Wrong (Mr. Wrong Chronicles #1)

“Oh dude, you have like no capacity! Let’s go get you some coffee.” He came around the kitchen counter and guided Emily out of the house with a hand on her back.

“And a lot of carbs,” Emily added, looking up at him.

“And a lot of carbs,” Seb nodded.

That decided, they began their journey towards the nearest cafe, Seb walking like a human person and Emily wobbling beside him, glaring at everyone they came in contact with.

When Emily finally took a sip of her coffee, it was like a haze had lifted. She could see clearly again. And the urge to rip the throat of the stupid cashier typing stupid things on the billing machine? Totally gone! She also finally took stock of her surroundings.

The cafe was pretty empty. There were just a couple of customers other than Seb and her. One of them was a woman sitting at the far corner with hair the exact shade of pink as Ray's. Emily smiled at herself. Ray probably made it a trend here.

After the fifth sip, it hit her that the woman was Ray. Sitting just two tables away! She was about to nudge Seb, who was chatting up the barista, when a woman entered and walked straight towards Ray’s table.

Seb turned to see what had Emily’s attention, and things took an unexpectedly weird turn. Ray, yes, she was definitely Ray, stood and straight up kissed the woman. On the mouth. For more than a couple of seconds. So, not straight up. Gay up? Bi up? Pan up?

Emily laughed at her own joke. Maybe she was still a little bit drunk. She looked back at Ray and the woman who was probably Ray’s girlfriend. They were now looking right at her. The woman was very pretty, even with her frantic expression, looking between her and Ray. Good job, Ray!

But Ray looked horrified. Emily looked at Seb to see if he could explain what was going on. He looked like he was bracing for something, ready to pounce if anything went wrong.

Suddenly, it dawned on Emily that this wasn’t the first time she was on the receiving end of this expression from Seb.

It was a rare occurrence, but her brain helpfully played a slideshow of every time she had seen that expression on him, eyes a little wide, not blinking, nose flaring slightly, and body ready to react.

Every time Emily teased them for their lack of passion for each other, the one time she said Camille shouldn’t have toyed with Mike’s feelings if she knew she only liked girls, and when she asked Ray if she would ever make out with a girl.

Emily didn’t know where these memories were coming from, but she knew one thing for sure, she didn’t know as much about Ray’s life as she claimed she did.

She thought she was Ray’s best friend, but it was clearly the man beside her, ready to defend Ray if Emily breathed wrong.

The thought and the expression on Seb’s face made her vision blur.

For a second, everyone was just looking at each other, frozen in place. Ray and the woman in the corner, and Seb and Emily near the counter stools.

Did they think she was so horrible? Did they sit in on their ‘dates’, talking about how they needed to hide this big thing about Ray’s life from her? She already knew the answer, but to stop her tears and minimize the chances of a full-on breakdown, she asked Seb, “How long have you known?”

“Not long—” Seb started to answer when Ray finally got out of her funk and joined them.

“Em, I was going to tell you on this trip,” she said quickly.

“Why didn’t you until now?” she asked, desperate for a logical explanation for all this. She didn’t know how she would survive knowing her best friends thought she would not be…what? Not be okay with Ray finding love?

“I…I wasn’t ready,” Ray admitted, not meeting Emily’s eyes.

“But you told him?” Emily asked, pointing to Seb.

“It was weeks after we started going out,” she said, still not looking at Emily.

“So, all along? He has known for at least three years?” Emily confirmed, her heart breaking with every word.

She knew she was making her friend’s moment all about herself. But she couldn’t comprehend what she could have done to make Ray want to hide this from her. Maybe it was because she made everything about herself? That could be it.

She couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her face. She still smiled, but she wasn’t feeling anything anymore. She probably didn’t deserve to either. “I’m so happy for you,” she said to Ray.

Ray looked at Emily with a small smile, which instantly dropped after one look at her face.

“And she’s hot, so good job,” she pointed at the girl. “I’ll see you back at the house.” She took her coffee and left before she completely lost it.

Emily didn’t know how she made it back to the house.

Her mind was going a mile a minute. One second, she was consumed by guilt for not being there for Ray her entire life, not even knowing such an important part of her identity.

The next second, she was angry at Ray for not sharing such a pertinent detail with her, but decided to tell Seb within weeks of knowing him.

But her anger just turned into more guilt.

Ray didn’t feel safe telling her, and Seb thought he had to protect Ray from her.

And not just today, it has been going on all along.

Because they could have limited the ruse of their fake relationship to only when they were in public.

But they felt the need to pretend when it was just them, too.

Maybe that was it. There was never a ‘them’.

It was Ray and Seb, and then Seb was stuck with Emily.

She didn’t know how she ended up in the backseat of an Uber with her luggage.

But when she reached the airport, she realized she didn’t have a choice.

She felt so ashamed and angry, she couldn’t possibly face Ray and definitely not Seb.

She knew what she was doing was juvenile at best and horrible at worst. She knew this was not about her, it was about Ray. But she couldn't do anything other than leave. Maybe Ray had the right idea all along. Emily was a horrible friend.