Lauren's POV:
I'd grabbed her hand to hold the entire ride here, and her thumb swiped across the back of mine as I gazed out of the backseat window. And the whole time, I didn't say a word, but neither did she.
It seems as if she'd meant just was she'd said at the reception because the second the hotel door shut behind her, and I'd sat on the bed, she spoke,
"Okay. Talk to me." My eyes followed her warily as she squatted down before me, held my hands as they sat on my thighs, and gazed attentively at me. "What happened?"
If it were anything else, it would've been easy to just come right out and say it. Very rarely are either of us upset with each other, and if we're upset in general, it's discussed with ease. And with this, I wanted it to be the same... I was honestly almost mad at myself for even reacting this way about it, because I thought I'd been over it by now... But I guess not.
"I'm not mad at you," I began, semi telling the truth. "Or at least I don't want to be..."
"So what did I do?"
"Nothing...I'd answered a phone call from Charlie for you, because you were busy coordinating reception details with Hunter, so I thought I could potentially help. And I did, she needed date clarifications for the next two weeks, and to know if you had this week's sketches ready, so I covered it for you. But then as soon as I got off the phone with her, I saw a text from Troy pop up..."
At those last words, Sade tilted her head knowingly, and curled her lips slightly inward before speaking,
"What'd he say?"
"Something like 'call me later, I think I was right...'" Her eyebrows furrowed, implying that she knew there was more. I then sighed, drifting my gaze away from hers. "Curiosity got the best of me, and at first I was just going to text him back... but then I wondered how you even got his number in the first place, and what y'all could possibly be talking about.... And once I started scrolling up, I just couldn't stop..."
"How far did you scroll?"
"Why, so you can contemplate how much you're gonna tell me?"
It wasn't intentional, but I snapped at her a little, and her eyebrow rose at me,
"Lauren-"
"I scrolled all the way to the top Sade. Not that it should even matter because the real question is, why in the hell is he talking to you of all people, about Micah?" I asked, my voice slightly raising with a pinch of a crack in it. She tilted her head again,
"Lauren..."
"And more importantly, why am I completely oblivious to the fact that you were speaking to him at all? About Micah of all people, Sade??" I finally made eye contact with her, but she simply looked as if she knew I wasn't actually demanding a response from her now. "I mean yeah, you're a grown woman and can talk to whoever you please...but I just thought it would've been nice to know Sade," my head shook. "Why didn't you tell me??"
For a moment, she'd paused, now bowing her head as a breath escaped her lips. And when she looked back up at me, I could see in her eyes that she regretted not doing so.
"He'd contacted me, right after the accident, saying he didn't think Micah should be walking away without a scratch after what he'd done to you both.... And I was fuming at the time, because of it, so I was on board," she explained, making my brows furrow as I processed. "But then when he died, Troy claimed he wasn't buying it. And I'd already told him that I didn't care to continue what we were doing before then, but sometimes he still texts me about it-"
