Page 132 of The Betrayal

Me and Titus have avoided each other. I really thought Ari being in hospital would have mended our rift, but clearly not. He is walking round with a constant thundercloud over his head and it's starting to annoy me. My fingers fumble with the buttons of my shirt before they're clasped round the wedding band round my neck. I still have her birthday present in my desk at home, couldn't find the courage to give it to her for some reason.

Kaleb breaks me away from my clock watching and smirks when he sees what I am playing with.

“Not ready to let go?”

I drop my hand and button my shirt back up.

“Never.”

“Fair,” he nods, stepping into the office. “I wanna talk to you about something,” he says, pulling out the chair in front of my desk and flopping down.

“Yeah?”

“I want to propose to Connie. Everyone is shacked up, well, apart from Nate.”

“Nate's Nate, though. He could be married for all we know, and he wouldn't tell us. He would be one of those that would elope to some exotic country and swear he dropped it into conversation.”

Kaleb laughs as he rubs his empty wedding band finger.

“You're not wrong,” and I laugh.

“I just feel like I want to take the next step with Connie. We don't want kids. We're happy with our lives, but I do want her to be my wife. Titus is married, you're married...” he pauses, “well, kind of,” he adds, smirking.

“Cunt. I am married.”

“Killian and Reese... and then there is me.”

“And Nate,” I throw in.

“Fuck Nate.”

“Harsh,” we hear Nate's voice and Kaleb spins round to see Nate standing in the doorway.

“Hey, come in a minute,” I say and he does, hands tucked in his pockets, dirty blonde hair messy as always, the odd curl showing.

“Yeah?” his brows raise.

“Kaleb wants to ask Connie to marry him.”

“Really?” he sounds shocked.

“Yeah, why wouldn't I?”

“Dunno, she doesn't really seem the married type?”

I watch as Kaleb sits a little taller.

“Well, neither do you.”

“No?” Nate cocks his head to the side, and I know he is playing with him.

“No.” Kaleb rolls his lips and I can see him thinking over Nate's words.

“I mean, has Connie ever said about wanting to get married?”

He pauses for a moment, Kaleb's eyes on me before they move back to Nate. “Don't all girls want to get married?”

“Nope,” me and Nate say in unison.