Chapter 44 Cheating

Chapter 44 Cheating
Zayd

"Can you put me down for a moment?" Amrah's voice came out small.

I almost missed it under the low music. But she said it again, steadier this time, and something about the clarity in her voice with no slur nor waver made me loosen my arms before I even decided to.

I set her down slowly, watching her the whole time, ready to catch her if her legs gave but they didn't. She straightened her dress and for a second I forgot Chris was even standing there, because she looked so completely unlike the woman who had been hunched over the bar thirty seconds ago.

She walked up to him in an unhurried manner and stretched out two fingers to press them flat against his forehead.

"Amrah, what are you —" Daphy started but stopped seeing that she had retracted her hand. 

"Normal," she said, "But you don't sound normal."

I felt something loosen in my chest. She wasn't drunk enough to fall for whatever he was doing and that was enough to give me a sense of relief.

Chris caught her wrist before she could step back, and I had to stop myself from closing the distance and removing his hand myself.

"I'm not sick, Amrah. I'm finally saying it out loud in front of everyone." He said it like the words were a heavy sacrifice he made.

"I spent the last few days fighting my agency on this. They didn't want me to be with anyone. You know how it is, image control, all that but I made them understand. I told them I wasn't backing down. Especially not about you."

The small crowd that had formed started whispering and I saw a satisfactory smile flash across Chris's face. He was getting the reaction he wanted.

"So you two were together?" someone said, delighted, like this was the best thing that had happened at the party all night.

"I knew it! The way you two somehow I always ended up in the same scene. And the fact that you live in the same building"

"We had a whole thing going, didn't we," Chris said, easy, warm, looking at Amrah like she was supposed to nod along. "Just kept it quiet until now."

Amrah's face did something complicated. Not anger, but more of disbelief, like she was watching someone rewrite history in real time and couldn't decide whether to laugh or throw her drink at him.

"We have never been on a single date, Chris," she said, flat. 

"And you don't reply to my texts until you feel like. Most of the time, you ghost me. There was no 'thing', Chris. You only emotionally manipulated me for months" 

"That's not how I remember it." He said it gently, like he was being patient with her, like she was the one confused. 

"You always played it cool, but I knew what we had. All your claims are just you being confused, I had to play it well because I didn't have my agency's permission"

"I'm not playing anything cool right now," she said, voice rising. "I'm telling you there was nothing to hide because there was nothing there in the first place."

"Amrah." He reached for her hand again, and this time she pulled it back before he could close his fingers around it. 

"You don't have to do this. Not in front of everyone. I get it that it's a lot, me finally saying it out loud..."

"There's nothing, Chris. I'm only confused as to why you are doing this all of a sudden" 

I stood there with my hands in fists at my sides, watching him work her, because that's what it was, working her, laying down a story so smoothly that half the crowd had already believed it. 

They were nodding like they were watching some tragic secret finally surface. He wasn't even looking at her like a man in love. He was looking at her like a man trying to be in love whilst checking the room's reaction more than hers.

“Does Christopher Montgomery need his agency to do whatever the fuck he wants?" I asked, leaning against the bar. 

I won't let him keep manipulating the whole situation, two can play the game, Chris.

"I do. And you know it, Zayd.” His voice was hard, but I was the only one who heard the hardness. 

“I don't. I only know that you don't need anyone's permission to do something “

"I needed the time to sort things out," he said. "For Amrah and me”

"There is no us." Amrah insisted with knitted brows, it was obvious that she was getting frustrated with the whole thing. 

“Yeah, I guess so as well” 

That was Jack, he pushed through the crowd with his phone raised, that particular grin on his face that told me he had been waiting all night for an opening exactly like this one.

"Before this gets any more touching," Jack said glancing at Amrah before facing Chris 

“Are you sure she is worth all that trouble, man?"

Chris frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Jack turned his phone around, screen bright, thumb already scrolling. "Because what I have got here says she is not exactly loyal to begin with." He looked at Amrah with a degrading look, as if he was enjoying himself. 

“Word is you have been hooking up with him." His chin tipped toward me. "And I've got proof."

The whole deck seemed to go quiet at once, as if everyone had held their breath waiting to see how it would play out at this point. 

Amrah's face drained of color.

"What," she said, "are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb." Jack was grinning now, fully enjoying the shift in attention, phone still raised like a weapon. "Should I just show everyone, or do you want to explain it yourself first?"

I stepped forward before I even thought about it, close enough that my shoulder brushed hers.

"Show me," I said. My voice came out low, controlled in a way I did not feel. "Whatever you think you have. Show me right now."

It couldn't be any worse.

Jack's grin faltered just slightly enough that I caught it before he steadied it back into place.

“Of course, you should watch too” He turned the screen toward both of us.

Amrah leaned in beside me, and I felt her go rigid the second the video played.