“Oh, wonderful, they have vegan desserts. I think I love this place already.”
“We eat here a lot since it’s so close to the gym,” Isaac told her.
“Is that so?” Annabelle chirped.
“Yes, and Neil practically lives here,” Callum added. “If he’s not at the gym, I always know where to find him.” A pause as his attention went between us. “So, how did you two meet?”
It was probably stupid of me, but I hadn’t been ready for this question. Luckily, Annabelle swooped in with an answer. “We met at the supermarket. I was looking for the oat milk, and Neil was happy to point me in the right direction. We hit it off from there.”
“That sounds like something that happens in romcoms rather than in real life,” Isaac commented, and Annabelle laughed softly.
“I know, right? It was the perfect meet-cute.”
I noticed Callum’s brows furrow a little in confusion. I’d told him I met a girl online but that we’d yet to meet in person. Clearly, he presumed correctly that Annabelle was this girl and that we’d finally taken the plunge to meet. Her fake story about bumping into each other at the supermarket didn’t match up.
He shot me a questioning look, but I just shrugged. It was possible, after all, that she was a completely different person to the internet girl since I’d never told him her name.
“What about you and Leanne?” Annabelle asked, snagging his attention. “Did you both meet on the show, or did you know each other from before?”
So, she was aware of their relationship. That benefit of the doubt I’d given her earlier was wavering thin.
Callum’s easy demeanour grew somewhat wary. I knew he liked to keep details of his relationship as private as possible these days. Though, he had asked her the same question, so it didn’t come too out of left field. I, on the other hand, was beginning to wonder if Annabelle’s lack of enthusiasm to tour the gym and meet the cast earlier was carefully woven to lure me into a false sense of security. There was just something about how she looked at Callum that deepened my suspicions. She seemed far more alert when she spoke to him than when she spoke to me.
“We met on the show,” Callum answered, not giving any further details.
“It must be difficult to have your relationship viewed and judged by millions of people. I’m in awe of how you both manage to make it work.”
“It certainly wasn’t easy in the beginning,” he replied.
“Shall I go up and put in our orders?” I said, wanting to change the subject. This whole situation was weird enough without Annabelle interrogating Callum about his and Leanne’s relationship. I looked to Annabelle as I explained. “Ordering is self-service here.”
“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll get the vegan apple pie with cashew cream.”
Callum and Isaac both told me what they wanted, and I went over to put the order in. When I returned, Annabelle had somehow managed to sidle even closer to Callum and was peppering him with parkour-related questions. I slid back in next to Isaac as he bent to whisper in my ear, “I’m sorry to break it to you, but I think your girl has a thing for Callum.”
I stiffened and sighed. So, Afric had been right all along. She had to have been if Isaac had come to the same conclusion and he’d barely spent half an hour in Annabelle’s company.
“Yeah,” I replied in a quiet voice. “I think you might be right about that.”
Isaac shot me a commiserating grimace as I racked my brain for ways to make a clean break with Annabelle and also make things up to Afric. I never should’ve doubted her.
Afric
“I’m so jealous,” Yellowshoes complained. “You have no idea how much I wish I could join you guys this weekend.”
“I wish you could, too,” I replied. “We’ll meet in person one day, though. I promise.”
“If you’re so desperate, why don’t you book a last-minute flight?” TheBigSix suggested. “Life is all about being spontaneous.”
“I can’t. I have to work. If I didn’t, I might actually be tempted to book that flight, no matter how costly.”
A few weeks ago, there’d been a reported UFO sighting in a rural part of Cornwall. This weekend, me, TheBigSix, and several of our U.K.-based extra-terrestrial enthusiast online friends were going to travel down there, camp out for a night, and see if we could catch a glimpse of said UFO. I was glad for the distraction since Neil had been giving me nothing but radio silence for two days now. And sure, two days wasn’t long in the grand scheme of things, but it was when it came to Neil and me. I’d gotten far too attached to our constant communication, and I missed him like crazy. Though, admittedly, I was still hurt and upset that he didn’t believe me about Annabelle. That he’d chosen her. Maybe it was silly of me to think that whatever bond we’d built over the last few weeks could be more important to him than his precious Annabelle.