I Wrote Their Love Story, So I Wrote Myself Out novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Night Before

Isla's POV

On the night before the roof, Jasper went to the loft to walk the cable runs with the crew.

I went down to the hotel bar to meet his girlfriend.

The bar was a long dark room with exposed brick and a bartender who did not look up.

Demi had taken the table in the corner, with her back to the wall.

She had a glass of water in front of her and her hands round it.

She looked so young without a lens on her that I felt something close to pity, which I resented.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

"You asked."

"I know I've no right."

"No," I agreed, and sat. "But I've a free evening, and I'm curious."

She almost laughed.

"You're the most direct person I've ever met."

"I run a cinema in Leith. Politeness doesn't keep the lights on."

She turned the glass in a half circle on its coaster.

"I'm going to ask you something," she said. "And you can tell me to go to hell."

"Go on."

"When he looks at you." She stopped, started again. "He used to look at me through the camera first. Always."

"Every day I was in a room with him, there'd be a lens between us for a second."

"Then he'd lower it and see me. I thought that was just how he loved people."

I said nothing.

"Does he do that with you? Does he look through the camera first, and then at you?"

It was a better question than I'd expected.

I thought about the night of the laptop, and the fight, and the kiss that came out of it.

I thought about the hotel, with the city in the window and nothing in his hands.

"No," I said.

"Never?"

"Not once." I held her eye. "He came into my cinema with a backpack, and the camera stayed in it."

"All these weeks, I've never seen him lift it."

"Because he's done with it."

"Because he doesn't need it to see me." I heard my own voice go lower. "He looks at me with his hands empty. He looks at me and he's there. Do you understand? He's in the room."

Demi's face did a small, terrible thing.

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend