Cursed Love Read Free

cousins or something.
    I glanced over my shoulder as we walked and
he was still fluttering around, trying to find a way out. With any
luck, it’d take him a while.
    At the end of the block, Aaron stopped
abruptly under a streetlight. Dingy, yellow light washed the
sidewalk beneath us. He turned to face me, his face impassive.
“Why?”
    A chill crept down my spine. “Why what?”
    “Why did you break up with me?”
    We were standing on a corner, under a
streetlamp. Besides making us the butts of so many bad jokes, he
really wanted to have this talk now ? I spread my arms. “You
want to have this conversation here?”
    “Fine.” He turned a slow circle, his gaze
falling on the park across the street. “We’ll go sit over there,
then,” he said and stalked off before I could respond.
    Defeated, I frowned and followed. This wasn’t
going at all as planned. Not that I’d had a plan, but if I’d had, I
was sure it wouldn’t have been this. And Aaron definitely wouldn’t
have been the guy whose love I was supposed to save.
    He stuffed his hands in his pockets and
entered the park ahead of me, his walk slow and casual, controlled.
Stopping shy of the entrance, I released a deep breath and
continued to watch him, trying to ignore the pangs in my heart.
Tonight wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be together together. We were supposed to be celebrating and
having a good time, instead of heading for…I didn’t know what. A
fight? A can-we-still-be-friends talk? I didn’t want to be a party
to either of those.
    I ran my hands through my hair and let out
another deep sigh as I pushed myself forward. The wind blew, and a
bone-chilling cold sent a shiver down my spine. Unable to stop it,
I shuddered. It wasn’t only from the cold, though that seemed to
suit my mood. Things were all screwy and I didn’t have any idea how
to fix them.
    Maybe, just maybe, they weren’t meant to be.
Everyone said things happened for a reason, so maybe tonight was
one of those things. Maybe our breaking up had been one, too.
    By the time I caught up with him, he was
already sitting on a swing. I sat down on the free one next to him
and, more out of the habit than want, slowly began rocking back and
forth.
    The silence was thick and closing in on me.
Keeping my gaze straight ahead, I said, “What did you want to talk
about?”
    “I’ve missed you,” he said, his tone
soft.
    The snort left my mouth before I could even
think to stop it. “You what?” My voice was a complete squeak but I
didn’t care. I turned slowly, and stared at him openmouthed. “You
cannot be serious.” He couldn’t be.
    His eyes locked on mine and I couldn’t force
myself to look away again. “I am. I miss you.” He sighed. “I’ve
missed us .”
    “There is no us ,” I replied coldly.
“Not since you lied and cheated on me.” My lips curved into a
sneer. “Or did those pesky details slip your mind?”
    “Damnit!” His hands tightened around the
swing chains like he hoped to strangle the life out of them. “I’ve
never lied to you, and I sure as hell didn’t cheat on you! And for
the life of me, I don’t know why you think it.”
    The boom in his voice almost made me jump.
I’d known Aaron for three years and not once in that time had I
ever heard him sound like that. He rarely even raised his voice. “I
don’t think it—I know it. Unless, of course, you have an evil
twin.”
    “How? When did I cheat, Amelia?”
    I stopped swinging and set my jaw. “We had
plans to go out for the weekend. Then you canceled, claiming you
had to go with your sister somewhere. Which, by the way, was all
fine and good. But then,” I continued, my tone getting increasingly
louder, “when I went to the store, I saw you. Only you weren’t with
your sister.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t remember that.”
All anger died away from his face and voice, and he sounded
confused. He looked it, too. I had to give him credit for that. But
then,