Chapter 52: Rivals, Part 10

James

Realisation is dawning across Michael's face. I press my point home. "There is no competition here if we don't let there be." Then I pause.... He looks startled. "What's that look for?"

"Oh.... Charlotte said something similar, about different things mattering to the two of us."

"Well, she was spot on, wasn't she? Why did you suddenly become jealous? You've never behaved like that before, in all the years we've known each other. What triggered it?"

He looks shame faced. "I see the way she looks at you..."

The way she looks at me?

"… It's like.... like a kind of awe when she sees you. She doesn't react to me the way she does to you."

"Why should she? We're very unalike. Why would she react to us the same way?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Michael, I am her Master."

"And what does that make me?" The aggression drifts back into his tone. "Where does it leave me?"

"She said it herself, didn't she.... You're her Lover. And as for how she looks at me, I've see