The Actor and His Secret by Ben Alderson & Laura R. Samotin

Author:Ben Alderson & Laura R. Samotin [Alderson, Ben & Samotin, Laura R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

17

OLI

I feel like I’m going to pass out the whole time I’m engaged in this horrific deception.

It doesn’t quite feel real, like I’m a character in some spy movie who’s been tasked with setting up a drop. You know that sense of unreality that sometimes comes along with anxiety, like you’re not the one in charge of your body? Like you’re seeing through someone else’s eyes?

Yeah. I’m feeling that hard.

Nikos told me this morning that he was going to record for a radio show, and that it would take him a few hours to get back. I told him that I had errands to run and that I would listen as I did them, and I felt so bad as he kissed me and then walked out of the door that I wanted to die.

I’m not going to listen, and I know it.

I grab a hoodie out of my closet and throw on jeans, fishing out an old baseball cap too. There’s no reason for me to be disguised, but I feel like it’s armour. Like if I’m dressed this way, I’m not the one who’s actually dropping a watch worth tens of thousands of dollars into the coffee cup I get from Costa along the way.

Drinking the coffee gives me instant heartburn. I dump the rest in the Thames.

Sorry fish.

The spot by the river where Nikos and I had sat was so special to me, and now Geoff has ruined it, just like he ruined our relationship and my heart. My stomach lurches as I shake the last dregs of the coffee out of the cup and then drop the watch into it, snapping the plastic lid on top.

When I glance around, I can’t see Geoff anywhere. I know he must be watching, though. He probably was following me the whole way here. The thought makes me hunch my shoulders as I turn back towards home. I’m constantly looking behind me as I walk, too wound up to take the tube. Fresh air usually does me good when I’m anxious, but not this time. My stomach just sinks further with every step I take.

It’s over, I remind myself. He got the sick revenge he wanted, and now he’s out of your life.

Geoff is the kind of man who just wants to be in control. He just wants to know that everyone is wrapped around his finance-bro finger. This is like a dog pissing on something to show ownership.

It’s the last time he’s going to do this to me. I have to believe that.

I stop into the hardware store after the half-hour walk home. It’s raining now, and only getting worse. A clock on the wall shows that Nikos’ radio program must have ended by now, but I can’t bring myself to text him. Not with what I’ve just done.

I pick up a roll of white tape, the kind that you use to section off stripes when painting. I disabled the security system last night, but I don’t trust Geoff to not find a way to get back in.

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