Page 230 of Love Unwritten

I proceed to choke.

The photo of Cole and Ellie on my phone screen taunts me, along with the bold headline above boasting about Cole being seen out in Portugal with a beautiful blond.

My beautiful blond.

Ellie may remain anonymous to the general public thanks to her dark sunglasses, but I could point her out in a crowd of hundreds. Cole’s hand is pressed against the small of her back while security guards fend off the crowd waiting outside some upscale restaurant. The singer’s mouth hovers near her ear, making it seem as though he is passing along some secret the world isn’t privy to. Ellie’s smile is small but present while her eyes are shielded by opaque lenses.

Based on the photo, I can’t get a good read on her, which only worsens the churning acid in my stomach.

Thanks to my masochistic tendencies, I read the article while the knot in my throat tightens with every line.

Cole Griffin was spotted out on the town with his band, although it was the woman on his arm who caught everyone’s attention.

On. His. Arm.

Something in my chest shrivels up with the next sentence.

Someone close to the source says Cole and his mystery woman have been seen throughout different stops on the European leg of his tour.

His woman?

Fuck these journalists.

She is mine.

Yet looking at the two of them together—looking at how perfectly they seem to fit into each other’s lives—makes me wonder if I’m fooling myself into thinking she is.

Wouldn’t be the first time a woman cheated on you. The voice I’ve spent weeks trying to eradicate emerges again, poisoning my thoughts with what-ifs.

What if Ellie and Cole connect on some deeper level and realize they’re better suited for one another?

What if Ellie decides she likes bouncing around cities, writing music into the early morning with him by her side?

What if—

Stop it, I tell myself.

Controlling my jealousy proves difficult, especially when I can’t get that photo of Ellie and Cole out of my head.

Although I want to believe Ellie wouldn’t cheat on me, I struggle to shake off the feeling, which is why I ignore her call that comes in ten minutes later.

I can’t talk to her when I feel like this.

Jealousy isn’t attractive, and neither is feeling insecure about another man, so I’d rather stay quiet than be vulnerable like that, especially when Ellie and I still have four more weeks of her traveling around Europe.

Four more weeks of her possibly falling in love with another man too.

My molars grind together, and I do my best to shove the thought out of my head.

Ellie loves me. Not Cole.

Yet no matter how many times I tell myself that, I still worry about the possibility of that happening.

Four weeks is a long time to be apart.

Ellie calls me two more times, but I send both to voicemail. A text follows soon after, and I reluctantly read it.

ELLE