“I’m pregnant. Not infected with the Ebola virus. You don’t have to look so freaked out. Women have babies every day.”
His nostrils flare. “But they don’t get knocked up by my best friend while he’s out fucking other women.”
My whole body freezes except my heart, which starts to pound. “What are you saying? Olly wouldn’t cheat on me.”
“No?” He grabs his phone, punches at it, scrolls, and shows me the screen.
It’s that damn blog again. I put my hand over it. “They post crazy things. You can’t believe everything in the media, Bash. You know that.”
“Look at the fucking time stamp, Magnolia. Don’t bury your head in the sand.”
“I trust Michael. He would never cheat on me.”
He lets out a breath. “Where was he last night?”
Ugh. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Where was he last night?”
“At the football house,” I say warily.
“Did you know they had an orgy in the pool? There are photos of it everywhere. That’s all the local radio station is talking about this morning. Did Michael even come home?”
Angry and overwhelmed, I clench my fists. “No. He didn’t. Are you happy now? But just because he didn’t come home doesn’t mean he slept with someone else.”
My brother closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Look, until this morning, I loved that guy like he was my own brother, and there was never any reason to share his dirty laundry with you. But you have no idea what those guys get up to in that house. You would call this an orgy. They would call it a regular ol’ Saturday night. Two years ago, a woman dropped off a baby on their doorstep, and they had no idea who that kid belonged to. Do you know why? Because they’re all fuckboys. They don’t even know these women’s names.”
“I know who you’re talking about, and that is not an accurate depiction of what happened to Rider.” Ben and Sienna explained how that all went down. The story came off way more scandalous than it actually was.
While I can’t speak about Olly’s new roommates at the house, I’ve never heard bad things about the guys he used to live with who just graduated. Sienna would’ve given me the scoop if there was someone particularly abhorrent I should avoid.
Sebastian gives me a look. “I’m just saying don’t be naive. Because if Michael is screwing around behind your back while you’re fucking pregnant, this is worse than I thought.”
That’s when my boyfriend pulls up. I can’t help the rush of tears that fills my eyes when I see Michael. I don’t have the answers my brother is looking for. He clearly doesn’t believe me.
Sebastian shoves his phone under my face. “Just look. Before he gets out of the car, look, and tell me I’m wrong.”
Fine. I scroll through photos of naked people in the pool, but none of them are Olly, of course. “He’s not in… any of these…”
I pause on a shot of his bedroom. It’s hard to miss the beat-up poster of Star Wars he’s had since he was a kid. There’s a blonde who looks familiar. She’s topless. Stunningly beautiful.
Last January at the grocery store. She was with Olly.
And then I see the long red hair of whoever else is sitting next to her on the bed.
Vanessa has red hair.
Vanessa, who he said he was meeting up with.
Before he didn’t come home.
My brother is shooting a death glare at Olly as he walks up the sidewalk, but he whispers, “Tell me you see it. How that’s his room. And that’s probably the redhead he was cheating on last March at the wedding.”
What? Why does he think Olly was cheating on Vanessa?
Then I scroll to the second shot where you only see the blonde’s eyes. Her mouth is mostly cropped out because it’s obviously full of someone’s dick.
“Why do y’all look like someone died?” Olly asks just before my brother decks him.
