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aliceinreverselondon · 3 years

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Cheater - v2.0 || [Bruno Bangnyfe x reader]

(v1.0 - I had to write it the other way around as well)

“Jesus, Bruno, it was a stupid mistake, there’s no need to go ballistic over it.” The Deputy Director of the Inks sat on the chair across from his boss and folded his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been on the edge the whole week.”

Bruno drew in a sharp breath and angrily closed his laptop. Tom was his friend, he knew a lot about his private life, so he could just as well tell him the truth. He had to talk to someone otherwise he would go crazy in a matter of days.

“She cheated on me,” he said with a shrug, trying to act cool about it. “She showed me an article on her phone and she received a message from some guy while I was reading it. The preview was all I needed to realize it wasn’t from a simple friend.”

“Did you confront her?” Bruno shook his head in response. “Why the hell not?”

Silence followed his question and Bruno almost felt ashamed of himself. “I hoped she would admit it without me saying a word. I know she knows that I saw the message. But she said absolutely nothing and it’s been three whole days.”

Tom rubbed the bridge of his nose as he let out a groan. “You need to talk to her or you’ll go insane. If you make one more person cry in here, I promise you will be summoned by HR.”

“And what should I say? ‘Hey, I know you’re cheating, why don’t you tell me the truth?’ Thanks, but no.”

“But this would be a great start. Look, this is like a band-aid, just rip it off. Listen to her excuses then throw her out. It’s simple,” Tom said with a shrug.

Bruno shook his head then rested his forehead on top of his laptop. “I don’t want to throw her out. I love her and I really hope we can fix this,” he mumbled before looking up at his friend. “Am I pathetic?”

“You mean right now? At this moment?” Bruno nodded. “Yeah, a little. Just man up and talk to her.”

Before he replied anything, Bruno reached into a drawer and put a black box on the desk. “I bought this for her a few weeks ago.”

“Wow. If this is what I think it is that explains why you don’t want to throw her out,” Tom told him with a sigh. “Talk to her. You need to sort things out before you even bring up marriage. If she wants to stay with you—”

“I’ll ask her.”

“What? No. You’ll have to wait to do that. Damn, why are you so desperate? If she really wants to stay with you, she won’t go anywhere. Just make sure she stays faithful this time before asking her anything.”

Bruno put away the ring and stood up. “You know what? You’re right. I’ll talk to her now.”

“Now? It’s the middle of the day. Don’t you have to work?”

“Fuck, you’re right, I have a meeting I can’t cancel,” he said as he sat back down. “Tonight it is, I guess. By the way, thanks for the pep talk.”

Tom flashed a cheeky smile at him. “I’d better go or my boss will be mad at me. He’s been in a really bad mood lately.”

“Screw you,” Bruno said jokingly as he watched his friend leave the office.

But the smile disappeared the moment the door closed after him. He was afraid to talk to you because he had no idea how it would go down. He really didn’t want you to leave him but if your relationship with that other guy was serious… No, he didn’t want to think about it, he would only get mad again. And Tom was right, he couldn’t lash out at his co-workers every time he was upset.

The hours passed painfully slowly and he could barely focus on work. But eventually the day ended and he told everyone he had to leave on time today so he would deal with whatever their problem was the next morning. Only half an hour later he was staring at his front door, trying to get himself to finally open it. How could he be such a coward? That wasn’t like him.

And what if you started crying? How would he handle it? Maybe it wasn’t the right time to talk to you, he needed a strategy. Whatever that would—

His phone suddenly buzzed in the pocket of his jacket. ‘Don’t be a coward. Talk to her,’ Tom wrote in a short message. How the hell did he know? No wonder they were friends.

Taking a deep breath, he finally entered the apartment and walked to the living room where you sat on the couch and worked on your laptop. You barely looked up at him as you said hi so he had to take the device away from you to get your attention. “We need to talk.”

You watched as he put the now closed laptop on the coffee table and pulled up your knees defensively as he sat down next to you. Bruno wondered if you knew what he wanted to talk about.

“Who’s the guy?”

“What guy?” you asked with raised eyebrows, looking honestly confused.

“The one who messaged you when I was reading that article on your phone.”

You gulped. “A friend,” you said cautiously.

“A friend wouldn’t write… What was it? Oh, yeah, it was ‘I miss you and so does my bed.’ Who the hell writes such nonsense anyway?” he asked angrily. “Just be honest with me and tell me who’s that guy.”

A minute passed in complete silence. Then another passed. And another. He was beginning to think you would never answer, but then you closed your eyes and let out a long sigh. “It only happened once, I promise. You worked on something for a few days and I barely saw you so I went out with the girls. There was this guy who came over to us, we had a few drinks and,” you fell silent and he knew why. “I didn’t give him my number, he just found me on social media and started bombing me with messages. I’m serious, Bruno, I… I already feel shitty, I wouldn’t make this worse by keeping him around.”

“Why does it feel like you’re trying to make this about yourself? About how shitty you feel?” he asked with a growl. “What about me, huh? I love you. I know I sometimes work a lot but you knew about my job, you knew what you signed up for. I make time for you whenever I can because I want to be with you. And this is what I get, damn it!” He could see you were on the verge of crying but he didn’t care. Not this time. “Listen, I need an honest answer: do you love me or not? Because we can’t continue this relationship if you’re not putting your whole heart in it.”

He was worried about what you would say. What if you said you wanted this to be over? What would he do then? But then you shook your head and said, “No, no, Bruno, don’t think I don’t love you anymore. I do. I will always love you. I was just… You were so focused on your job that I had a feeling you weren’t all that interested in me anymore. We just need to fix this. We can fix this.”

“Are you a hundred percent sure?” You nodded and he felt a lot better now. Well, for now. You had a lot to talk about later as well. And suddenly a thought hit him. Something wasn’t right. You had said you went out with your friends. Including… “Libby.”

“What?”

“Libby was there that night, wasn’t she?”

You tilted your head to the side a little. “She was, why?”

He should’ve known that bitch had something to do with it. “She’s been against our relationship since the beginning. Hell, she once tried to set you up with some guys when I was standing right there. She was the one who told you I’m not interested in you anymore, wasn’t she?” Bruno waited for a few seconds, staring at you intensely until you finally bit on your lower lip and nodded. “This doesn’t mean that you’re not at fault here, but at least I understand what happened. Look, if you want to continue this relationship, you have to promise me something.”

“Anything,” you said right away.

“You need to cut ties with her.”

“What? But—But she’s my friend.”

Bruno shook his head. “If she’s willing to do this to us, she’s not a real friend. You’re better off without her. I wouldn’t ask for this if I didn’t think it would be good for us.” But while he expected you to agree, you instead ended up hesitating. Why were you hesitating? “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do this, Bruno. I mean, not like this. I’ll talk to her and tell her we can’t meet again, but then what? We have the same friends. Does it mean I can’t spend time with them either?” Funnily, this was the topic that eventually made you cry. “I can’t live my life with… work friends. Ugh, no. I need friends outside of work.”

“I never said you need to stop meeting your other friends. I’m sure they will understand and meet you without Libby. If not… Well, then it says a lot about them,” he said with a reassuring smile as he took your hand. A few seconds passed without you saying anything so he let out a sigh and said, “Do you need a few days to think about it?” You finally looked at him and nodded. “Okay, then I’ll pack a few things and go stay with Tom for a while.”

“There’s no need,” you told him. “I promised to visit my parents anyway, I guess I’ll reschedule it and leave tonight. You gonna be okay here?”

He let out a short laugh. “Don’t worry about me, I only want you to come back to me. Just… promise you won’t tell Libby about this. I don’t want her to convince you to break up with me.”

Wiping your tears with the sleeve of your hoodie, you nodded again. “I promise I won’t do that. I was an idiot for letting her manipulate me. But you’re right, I need to think about this. I love you and I don’t want to lose you. But I don’t want to lose my friends either, you need to understand that.”

“I understand.”

And he really did. Your friends meant a lot to you and whenever he worked a lot, they were there to keep you company. Libby was the only one he had a problem with, but if you decided to cut ties with her as he had asked, everything would be better. You stood up and went to the bedroom to pack a suitcase, but he didn’t bother you. This had to happen to fix things. Yeah, because it could be fixed. He considered himself lucky.

#bruno bangnyfe #bruno bangnyfe x reader #burn the witch

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