Page 31 of I Love You, I Hate You
Chapter Twelve
@Noraephronwasagenius
How goes things with Ice Princess?
Owen almost dropped his phone. He hadn’t expected Nora to bring Victoria up, although in retrospect he wasn’t sure why he was surprised. He used to make trashing Victoria a part-time job, but he had let that fall by the wayside lately. And now they had plans to go to a wedding together—a wedding out of town, no less—so he probably shouldn’t badmouth her to Nora, even if Nora was an internet stranger, more or less.
@Lukethebarnyardcat
They’re fine. Status quo, really
The lie sat awkwardly on his shoulders, even if it was nothing more than a little white lie in the end. He desperately wanted Nora’s take on things, but it felt somehow dishonorable to share his feelings for Victoria with her. He was starting to feel like he was using Nora for emotional intimacy while having Victoria for physical intimacy, and that made him feel like a goddamn jackass. It wasn’t cheating, not quite, but it made him feel like he might be.
Obviously, the answer was to come clean. Maybe not to Victoria yet—I have an internet friend who I tell everything to and I care a lot about her but maybe I also care about youwas a tough sell to someone you knew well, much less someone with the history he had with Victoria—but he probably owed Nora something close to the truth.
But then Nora might think less of him, and that felt unbearable. Nora’s good opinion mattered to him, and if she thought he was the sort of man who would string two women along, even if one was perfectly clear about what she wanted and it wasn’t a physical relationship with him, he’d be crushed.
@Noraephronwasagenius
She’s not giving you any trouble?
@Lukethebarnyardcat
Not any more than usual
Owen furrowed his brow and decided it was time to steer the conversation into calmer waters, waters that wouldn’t make him feel like he was more like his father than he was comfortable admitting.
@Lukethebarnyardcat
Any plans for this weekend?
Victoria wrinkled her nose and stared at Luke’s seemingly innocuous question.Any plans for the weekend?
She still hadn’t told him about Owen and the upcoming wedding, because honestly, how did you explain that mess to someone?
Well, more accurately, how did you explain a wedding date with her hate-sex-semi-fuckbuddy-slash-mortal-enemy to someone she sort of had feelings for who was an internet friend she never intended to meet? She honestly didn’t know how to explain it to herself, which was why she was doing her best to not really think about it.
And so instead of responding and continuing their conversation, she did the unthinkable.
She closed her laptop.
Victoria got up and paced around her apartment, rinsing out her wineglass and loading the dishwasher.I’m not avoiding him, I’m just getting some chores done, she told herself. Her phone beeped with a notification, and she closed her eyes, wondering what the fuck she was doing.
Not just with Owen, but with Luke. Part of her wondered if it was cruel to get so close to someone you were never going to meet, but then again, she had been up-front with him about it from the beginning, so it wasn’t like she was leading him on or lying to him in any real way.
But still, it didn’t quite feel right, especially now that she was . . . something with Owen. It felt unfair to have both men in her life like this, and she wasn’t sure how to define what she had with either of them.
The longest she had ever gone without talking to Luke since their first couple messages was twenty-four hours over Christmas. Even if they just checked in with each other they always made time for each other, no matter what. But the thought of talking to Luke while spending the weekend with Owen made her stomach roil. She put her phone on Do Not Disturb, feeling like a piece of crap.
Direct Messages: Nora @Noraephronwasagenius
@Lukethebarnyardcat
What’s on your mind today?
@Noraephronwasagenius
What do you think of marriage?