All Chapters of Rule Number One: My Brother's Best Friend : Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

It feels like such a slap in the face that it's hard for me to breathe. After a long moment, I manage to take a deep, shuddering breath, to try to restore some equilibrium to my system. It doesn't work. "I know that sleeping with Mark was wrong," I whisper after a moment. "I realise that now. But it was meant to hurt Julie, not the person I'm married to. But what you did, Sean... You purposely tried to hurt not someone you hate at work, but your wife."Sean's mouth twists with fury, and for a second, I see a flash of real hatred in his eyes. "Well maybe I wanted to do something as selfish and stupid as you were doing.""Yeah, probably," I grunt. I know that it's all I deserve, really. I can't be angry at Sean because I have done something far, far worse. And it's time to own up to that. "Well, you're probably going to feel very vindicated in a moment.""Why?" he snaps."Because I did something very selfish and stupid." His expression freezes, and I can tell he is preparing himself for

Two months later, Jason and I meet for lunch at HIDE, a large and elegant European-style restaurant in Mayfair. It's airy and full of light, and as the maître d' leads me up the spiral staircase that connects the three floors, I feel as if I am a glamorous film star in an old film. All of this feels unreal, still; too good to be true. I feel sexy, too, and younger than I have in years. I'm dressed in a short but flowing summer dress I picked out for myself after meeting with my divorce lawyer for the first time. It was expensive, but I figured it was okay to treat myself now and again. That's what my new life is all about: indulgence balanced with responsibilities, no longer pushed aside and relegated to being some sort of shameful secret. No more secret weekend rendezvouses. My new life is being led out in the open. Shame has no place here anymore.Jason is waiting for me on the top floor, at a table in the back, near the windows that look out over this part of London. It's been two

OBSESSION - New StoryAt what point does love stop being beautiful and become something sick?She was the closest thing to a goddess that existed on Earth. Everything about her was joy and peace and happiness. Wherever she went, she found beauty: to her, city lights were the same as sunrises; a bag drifting in the wind held the same majesty as leaves in the breeze. Everything she touched was made better for it; every person she met felt honoured to have even just briefly been in her presence. She was so sweet, they said, so kind, so beautiful and so genuine, as warm as her golden-brown eyes were in the basking light of sunset.His eyes were blue. Icy, cold, intense: a blue so dark it was almost a new colour. They were focused eyes, hard eyes that slashed at her softness. They absorbed everything, those eyes, picking out details that tried to scurry away and hide like beetles, only to be revealed by a hand plucking the stone away like it was nothing.Most of all, they absorbed her. The

I denied wanting him.He spent hours that felt like days and days that felt like lifetimes at our apartment. Hours upon days upon months. Their love didn't develop over time, the seed wasn't planted and nurtured until it took root and sprouted and flourished. No, their love was dandelions: one moment there were none, and the next it was an infestation.And lucky me, I was the one who had breathed on the puff.Day after day, Axel was there in the morning when I woke and after every class when I returned. He was a better roommate than Minah, even though he didn't actually live with us and I would never have said anything negative about Minah. The constant presence of her yoga mat spread across the living room where the coffee table was supposed to go and the thick hair that clogged our shower drain were small prices to pay for her friendship.At first, I was logical about it. He was good-looking, I told myself. It was a physical attraction, nothing more. A school-girl's crush, a daydrea

There was a list of reasons why we were perfect for each other, and a veritable encyclopedia of reasons we weren't.That encyclopedia went from C for Crazy to S for Sick. Other reasons were sprinkled here or there: real reasons, logical reasons, things like "he's in love with your best friend" and "he deserves better than you" and "Cecily, you're fucking crazy."I tried to force reasons in, like shoving loose-leaf papers with handwritten excuses between the pages and trying to pass them off as fact. He liked sports, I thought they were stupid. I wanted a kitten; he was allergic to cats. His face was too chiselled, his jawline too strong. I liked softer men, less intimidating ones, ones who didn't look like they could be on the covers of magazines.They never stuck, though.Axel was an only child. I was an only child. More than once, we'd commiserated about the lonely life of growing up without a sibling, the strangeness of being "only" when everyone else was "family."When Axel ate di