|31| - "All's fair in love and cyberwar." - 

**IMPORTANT: There is inline media within this chapter so ensure that you are connected to the internet before reading.**

Maybe Nathan had been too subtle in his previous attempts to reject Marie, but his latest conversation with her had left no room for misinterpretation.

She must have felt that way, too, if the Facebook message I received was anything to go by.

"Oh...my...God."

"What is it?" Jasmine asked, glancing up from behind her camera.

We'd been standing in Piazza Maggiore for an hour, with Jasmine's camera mounted on a tripod as she worked to capture the perfect moment in the fading dusk light. During that hour, we'd barely said a word to each other. She'd concentrated intently on her camera, and I'd scrolled through each corner of social media available to me.

"Marie has messaged me," I said.

Jasmine straightened up, her eyes widening. "Saying what?"

"Don't know. It just says there's an attachment..."

She snorted. "Probably a virus, knowing her. All's fair in love and cyberwar..."

Sliding the phone into my back pocket in order to resist the temptation to open the message, I nodded.

"You're right."

Jasmine bent over her camera again but continued to talk. "The whole situation absolutely baffles me. Why hasn't she moved on? I mean, don't get me wrong, Nathan is fit as, but he's made his feelings clear to her. You'd think she'd be embarrassed at the continual rejection."

"You'd think..."

"Unless she genuinely gets off on the chase."

The camera clicked and she leaned back to inspect the photo. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she adjusted the settings.

"Maybe she's just not used to people saying no to her," I said. "She's very attractive."

"He's said no plenty of times, though. If she wasn't used to it before, she will be now." Jasmine chuckled to herself as she bent down again to peer into the viewfinder.

"You know how people lose a lot of money at a casino? They lose a little, then they try to win it back, and then they lose even more. They just keep going because the more they lose, the more desperate they become to win it back."

"I get your point, and I very much approve of you comparing Marie's dignity to casino chips."

I laughed, wondering if it made me a bad person to joke at someone else's misfortune. Then I contemplated how Marie had been wishing misfortune on me for a while now, and that eased my conscience.

*

Half an hour later, we strolled back to the flat with Jasmine grumbling about her photography skills. She'd shown me the photos and they looked great to my untrained eye, but she felt differently.

"Isn't a good photo half camera skill and half editing skill, though?" I said.

"Yeah, I just don't like over-editing."

"Think of it as enhancing, then. All the top photographers will be doing it."

When we reached the flat, I checked my phone, noticing another message from Marie. This time she'd actually written something.

Nathan said you're not controlling. Maybe you should be if he's sending me messages like this.

I opened the message, noticing that her previous attachment was a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation.

I scoffed to myself. Who did she think she was kidding? She couldn't crack Nathan, so she'd decided to try to trick me instead? If desperation was continuing to hit on a guy after multiple rejections, where did manipulated WhatsApp conversations rank on the obsession scale?

"Talking about editing..." I said to Jasmine.

She dropped down onto the sofa next to me and I passed over the phone. Jasmine scanned the conversation before shaking her head and handing it back.

"Stupid girl. I think she might actually have problems."

"Does she not think Nathan would show me the real version of the conversation?"

"She probably does, but then maybe she was hoping you'd believe her to begin with, and it'd cause an argument over trust."

Jasmine could be right. A few months ago, that might have been the case. In fact, I'd been so insecure about Nathan's life back in England that something like this would have caused me to fly off the handle without even a consideration of its authenticity.

But we'd come a long way since then.

I didn't even need to refer to Bucket List 2.0, where it talked about not jumping to conclusions, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, and weighing up all plausible possibilities before assuming the worst.

That wrong conclusion and worst-case scenario didn't even cross my mind.

Smiling to myself, I typed a message to Nathan.

If Marie does get fired, I don't think she'd have any trouble getting a job in the creative industry... either inventing storylines or editing photos. The world is her oyster.

Nathan replied within seconds.

What you on about?

I sent the screenshots to him, and Nathan replied within seconds with the crying with laughter emoji.

I'm laughing, but inside I'm actually in despair. What is she doing?

Let's hope it's just a last-ditch attempt to cause a rift.

FYI, here's the real conversation.

I read through the screenshot, amused at how Marie had deleted certain messages to turn the conversation into something completely different.

Ignoring her seemed like the best approach. Marie would be able to see that I'd read it, and when she didn't receive a reply, she might finally give up. I didn't go as far as blocking her—that might give her some satisfaction and I wasn't prepared to take that risk.

"Maybe you should go to his office and surprise him," Jasmine said. "Just for shits and giggles."

"Tempting," I replied, "but it'd only look like an attempt to re-assert my status as his girlfriend. I don't want her thinking that she's got to us."

"You and Nathan are good now, though."

"I know, but she obviously doesn't think that if she's still trying to stir stuff up. This whole long-distance thing has been tough, but we're finally in a good place and I want to prove to everyone that we can do it."

Jasmine shrugged in acceptance and let the matter drop.

Later that evening, though, her suggestion played on my mind. My opinion hadn't changed; I didn't want to surprise Nathan just to stick it to Marie. However, I did want to surprise him. He'd done it for me, and I wanted to return the gesture.

Since Christmas, Nathan had pulled out all the stops to win back my trust and prove his love. From meaningful flowers delivered to my door, to intimate thoughts handwritten in a notebook, each had been intended to rebuild our relationship. He'd demonstrated his devotion, and now I felt determined to demonstrate mine.

*

Most of the time, Louisa successfully played the part of an invaluable mole on the inside of Nathan's company. Occasionally, though, she failed.

"What do you mean, you don't have access to his diary?" I asked her.

"Have you forgotten that I'm no longer his assistant?"

"No... But I thought if you had access to it at one point then you'd still be able to see it now. Have they actually revoked your access?"

She chuckled at me down the phone, somehow managing not to sound too patronising even though she was clearly laughing at me.

"Yes, Izzy. They have revoked my access."

I huffed. "What good are you?"

"Oh, come on. You know I like a challenge. Tell me what you need and I'll see what I can do."

Although I trusted Louisa with most things, I was very much aware that she divided her affections between Nathan and me. She didn't have favourites. She supported both of us in times of difficulty, and she celebrated with both of us in times of happiness. Could I trust her not to tip off Nathan by suggesting he perhaps dress a little smarter on the day or keep his diary open?

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked her.

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On how many more times you plan to offend me tonight."

Smiling, I drummed my fingers against my duvet as I considered my response.

"You know, I can get Barolo cheap over here."

She snorted. "Firstly, that's a lie. I already asked Nathan to smuggle me some back over the border and the price he quoted was not cheap. Secondly, you cannot buy my silence."

"You're only saying I can't buy your silence because you know I'm lying about the wine."

Louisa laughed and finally dropped her hard-to-get attitude. "Okay, so what's going on?"

"I want to surprise him, but I don't want to stride through the office because it'll look like I'm only there to show my face in front of Marie."

"Shame. I would pay to see Marie's face if you surprised Nathan at the office."

"Yeah, well, I want to rise above it. So, I was hoping you'd be able to let me know which days he's free around lunch so I can surprise him as he's leaving the building."

"Risky strategy. You're relying on him leaving the office for lunch and not getting booked into a meeting after you've bought your tickets."

"Well, I'm a risk-taker."

"You're definitely not."

"What would you suggest, then?"

"I have a very radical suggestion. You let yourself into your own flat, and you surprise him there."

At first, it seemed like an unoriginal idea, but as I bit back my automatic criticism of her suggestion, I began to consider it from a different angle. Although unoriginal, there would be fewer variables at play. I could concentrate on making the surprise special rather than my efforts being focused on ensuring I was in the right place at the right time.

"Actually, that could work," I said to Louisa.

She tutted. "Try not to sound so surprised next time."

With that decided, Louisa and I caught up on her personal life instead. She admitted that she'd finally made a move on the hot accountant and had a date planned for the weekend.

"That's great! What changed your mind?"

The last time we'd spoken about Louisa's love life, she'd been hesitant to dip her toe back into the world of dating. Even casual sex had lost its appeal.

"You did," she said.

"Me?"

What the hell had I done? Or was this the point where she made a very typically-Louisa joke about the state of my relationship pushing her into reconsidering her own?

"At Jack's party. You said I'd need to take the risk someday. I don't think either of us assumed that someday would be a few weeks later, but here we are."

"I'm happy for you, Lou."

"Don't get too excited. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. We were chatting in the kitchen and I just kept thinking, fuck this guy is so hot. I didn't want some other girl snapping him up."

I laughed. "Maybe the threat of potential competition was the push you needed."

"Exactly. And this time I know what I need to look out for. Mainly his phone passcode so I can check his messages when he's not around."

With her dark sense of humour but also her crushing heartbreak over Pedro, I found it impossible to read Louisa's intentions. I wouldn't put anything past her.

"I really can't tell if you're joking or not," I said after a pause.

"Of course I'm joking, you muppet. What do you take me for?"

"A strong, powerful woman who deserves the best and who knows she deserves the best."

She snorted. "Right, let's end the conversation on that, shall we?"

I smiled, knowing she didn't care much for compliments. Louisa and I had come full circle over the past couple of years. When we'd first met and I'd worried that she was into Nathan, I'd had no idea we'd become such close friends.

Now I had a different girl to worry about, one who actually did intend to pursue my boyfriend, and Louisa had stuck by my side—and Nathan's, admittedly—the whole way through.

If living 1000 miles away from home had taught me anything, it was that the best relationships can thrive and survive.  

***

Thank you for reading :) xx

This is the first time I've attempted inline media but I thought it would be a fun thing to try out for this particular chapter. Hopefully I managed to make the conversation look real (even though I couldn't figure out how to turn the single tick to a double blue tick on the app I used!). 

Please let me know your thoughts by voting or commenting! Any predictions on what's going to happen in the last couple of chapters?