Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,46
Do I confront my mom? What do I do, Aiden?”
I honestly don’t know what the right thing to do here is. I don’t want to have to deal with this kind of drama; I wish someone would just give me the right answer.
“I think Mason would want to know,” he says, eyes focused on the road, but I can tell he’s thinking through all the options.
“But he’ll hate me. He’ll hate my mom. It’ll ruin his family.” I frown.
I don’t want to hurt Mason and I can’t stand the thought of him hating me. He would be learning that everything he’s been told is a lie; that there weren’t any long nights or business trips. He’d learn that his father chose not to spend Christmas with his family because he’d rather spend it in Hawaii with his mistress.
Aiden looks at me thoughtfully. “Would you want to know, if you were him? Would you be mad if you found out some other way, and then found out your best friend knew the whole time, and didn’t tell you?”
Why does he have to present logical facts? Why can’t he just say, I’m sure it’ll go away by itself, Thea, no need to worry, like I want him to?
“I’m already keeping a bunch of other secrets from him and lying to all my friends, one more can’t hurt, right?” I ask hopelessly, because I already know the answer.
“It’s not the same and you know it.”
I sigh heavily. “Of all days for me to screw up, it had to be today? I just had to go back to get my sleeping pills and walk in on an affair. Typical, Amelia.”
The corner of Aiden’s mouth turns up in amusement. “Oh, don’t place all the blame on Amelia. Thea seems to like drama just as much, keeps her life interesting.”
I playfully hit him with the back of my good hand, but he still manages to make me smile. I know that Mason has the right to know, but what if I’m not the one who tells him?
“Technically, this is all your fault. I didn’t want to come back, but you just had to play the knight in shining armor. I could’ve been blissfully sitting on the patio sipping some fruity cocktail, ignorant to the problems of the world, but noooo, you wanted to turn back.” I cross my arms.
He raises an amused eyebrow. “Are you honestly blaming me right now?”
“Yes,” I say confidently. “And the only way you can make it up to me is if you tell Mason for me?” The statement ends up coming out as a hopeful question, a silent prayer that he’ll take the responsibility for me. I just can’t stand to see Mason’s reaction. Will he be angry? Sad? Heartbroken? Will he even believe me?
“Thea,” he starts softly. “You know if I could take your pain and problems from you, I would. In a heartbeat.”
He runs his hand through his hair, and despite the sincerity and sweetness of his statement, I can feel a big fat “but” coming.
“But,” he continues, “I think you should be the one to tell him. I’ll sit there with you when you do it and support you any way I can, but it’ll mean more coming from you. I didn’t even see anything, Thea. You need to tell him what you saw with your own eyes.”
Damn him. He makes perfect sense. I don’t even know how I could logically argue with him.
I sigh for what must be the twentieth time in the last ten minutes. “Fine, I’ll tell him. But if he doesn’t believe me or throws a table at me, it’s not my fault.”
“Mason wouldn’t throw a table at you. He might try, but he’s not nearly strong enough. I mean, maybe Julian, but then again—”
“Aiden!” I exclaim. Why is he making light of this situation and trying to make me laugh? Why is it working?
“Relax, Thea. Mason trusts you—he’ll believe you and won’t throw a table at you. Plus, you know I’d never let that table get close enough to hurt you.”
A smile creeps onto my face, my heart a permanent pile of mush whenever he’s around. “Okay, I’ll tell him. But after we get back home. I don’t want to ruin the vacation for him.”
“That seems reasonable to me,” Aiden agrees.
I might possibly be hurling Mason into a messed up, stressful, complicated family life. A couple of weeks having fun with friends with no worries or problems won’t kill him.