Chapter 4

Peter watched you dumbly as you stormed into his apartment and threw your coat on his counter before spinning round to him.

"I.. what?" He asked as he closed the door.

"You think he's cheating. I agree that...something is suspicious about why he was 20 minutes away from his office when he was supposed to be working. The thing is," You pointed to yourself. "I can't go up to him with a picture of him on a bench. I need proof before I start accusing him of sleeping around. So." You clapped your hands together. "How do we get proof?"

"Sorry I'm still catching up." Peter squeezed his eyes shut for a second. "Adam, you want to get proof on whether Adam is cheating on you or not?" You nodded. "What...what changed your mind?"

"She came into my work." You scoffed as you went to his fridge and grabbed two beers. You unbottled both and handed one to Peter. "I recognised her from the picture you showed me. She was talking about her boyfriend and you know, it sounded a lot like Adam."

"She said her boyfriend was called Adam?"

"No, she told me about his job and what he likes and how he is. She never said his name but it just..it sounds like him." You picked at the bottle label.

"Luka, he's probably not cheating on you."

"You said he was cheating!" You suddenly yelled.

"I said I thought he's cheating on you." He stepped towards you with a hand up. "Have you asked him?"

"No, I can't ask him without proof. He'll say you put the idea in my head, that you have feelings for me, that you're jealous, etcetera etcetera."

"Wait I, what I never-" Peter cleared his throat. "Who said that I have feelings for you?"

"No, you don't, obviously. But my friend had someone tell her that her girlfriend was cheating on her, and the girlfriend immediately went into a spiel about how the person who told her just wanted to jump her bones and was trying to turn them against each other. If I start questioning him without any proof of anything, he'll do the same, guarantee it."

Peter was quiet. His face was warm as he tried to dampen down his panic. He watched you picking at your bottle label before you had another sip. He didn't like seeing you upset by all this.

"What do we need to do?" Peter whispered, but you heard it loudly in the awkward silence. You cleared your throat and put your beer on the counter.

"I was thinking on the way over. There's 5 things we need to do." You went over to his coffee table and grabbed a stray notebook. "One, find out who this girl is."

"I thought you said she came into your shop?"

"Yeah but I don't know who she is, or how she knows Adam." You clarified with a roll of your eyes. "Then, Step 2, catch him in a lie." You scribbled it down as you spoke. "Step 3, I ask him about the lie and see what he says. If he is cheating, Step 4 is to catch him cheating. Then Step 5, tell him what I know."

"Right." Peter said as you passed the notebook to him and he read it over. "You know, you're better off leaving it to me."

"What?"

"Well," He looked up at you. "If you start acting differently, he might notice. And if something is wrong, then he might try and cover it up."

"Right, yeah no that makes sense."

Peter threw the notebook onto the couch and walked up to you, putting his hands on your shoulders.

"I hope I'm wrong Luka." He said, and you felt grateful that he said that. "I just don't want you wasting your time with someone that isn't treating you right."

"Yeah," You rubbed your eyes. "I know I shouldn't be either. I just...what if he is? What if he's been taking me for an idiot this whole time? Or if this is all nothing and I'm thinking he's a horrible person for no reason?!"You felt your eyes get a bit watery, and Peter pulled you into a hug and you buried your face into his chest as you wrapped your arms around him.

"Like I said," He said as he soothingly ran his hand over your back. "I really hope I'm wrong. But I'm gonna help you figure it out."

He clenched his jaw after he spoke and rested his chin on the top of your head. He closed his eyes as he let himself feel you squeeze him tighter, and he just wished that this was under different circumstances. He breathed in as he started to separate the two of you.

"Leave it with me. Step 1 is to find out who she is, yeah?"

You sniffed. "Yeah just...he might work with her or something so.."

"Which would make it a work thing." He clarified, and you nodded. "When are you seeing him again?"

"Tomorrow after work. Maybe." You shrugged, now feeling really downhearted about it all.

"I'll text you if I find anything, okay?" He asked, and you nodded again.

You left shortly after that, abandoning your beer, and generally feeling like crap. You were either going to find out that your boyfriend was cheating on you, or that you were a horrible person because you thought that he was. Either way, you didn't feel like you were going to win.

The next evening, you were at Adam's flat, watching a film with him, because it was a rare day where he finished work by 7pm and you had jumped at the chance to see your boyfriend. But now you were sitting here, on his couch, staring at him as he watched the film, with what felt like a dark cloud over your head.

Could he really be cheating on you? The guy that used to bring you gifts at work, that took you out to nice restaurants, that made you feel like a princess before he started taking on extra hours at work. Could that same guy really be lying to you and seeing someone else behind your back? Or multiple people?

"You alright babe?" He asked, and you suddenly realised you'd gotten sidetracked and had been staring right at his face the whole time.

"Oh yeah," You said quickly. "Yeah I'm okay." He reached his hand up and brushed some hair out of your face before kissing your forehead and pulling you closer into him. You exhaled while you chewed your lip.

You felt weird. Snuggling into someone that you were assuming was a liar, someone who you and your friend were going to be investigating to catch them in their lies. It just felt weird. You weren't sure if it was the right way to go about it. You would usually be the person to just tell shit to people's faces, so why weren't you asking him outright?

Because you and Adam had been dating for 10 months. Your second longest relationship. You loved him. You'd started talking about long term plans. It felt like you were very suddenly willing to throw that all away, based on what? A picture that Peter took?

But the small slither of doubt in your mind kept gnawing away at you. You had to know. You had to find out. If there were no lies, no cheating, then you can carry on as normal. And if there was...

Peter texted you about 45 minutes into the film just to update you that he hadn't found anything yet. You quickly locked and hid your phone, returning to your position tucked into Adam's side. You wondered what Peter was doing to try and find out this information. You knew he was tech-minded, a consequence of working with the great Tony Stark, but you couldn't imagine him hiding in the shadows and following people around. The image of it made you giggle out loud.

"What?" Adam said as he smiled with you.

"Nothing just, I remembered something funny at work today." You mused. Adam didn't enjoy talking about your job much, more because he couldn't relate to the ins and outs of retail work, so you knew he wouldn't probe you any further. So you cuddled back into him, and finished the movie in silence.

Peter was on a rooftop, his legs dangling over the edge, while he chatted on the phone to Ned.

"Any luck?" Ned asked him as Peter pulled his mask up a little and had a bite of his sandwich.

"No," Peter sighed. "A couple of near misses, but I haven't seen that girl yet."

"Maybe she doesn't even live round here?"

"I've done a few miles around from that coffee shop, she might just be staying in tonight."

"We can try again tomorrow." Ned offered. "All we need is a name, her face. Social media will do the rest."

"Yeah I ..." Peter trailed off as he spotted a blonde haired girl, the same kind of blonde as the girl in the picture. Was it her? "Gotta go." He muttered into the phone before hanging up on Ned and pocketing it, pulling his mask on and swinging closer.