Page 87 of Why Not Both?

“I blocked and deleted her number. Then I blocked her everywhere else I could think of.”

Spencer had mentioned Emily a few times, usually after she’d spent the night at Vic’s place. And after that single meeting with her, I definitely had my opinions.

“If you don’t mind my saying, you deserve better than her, anyway.”

She huffs a laugh. “That’s number one.”

I look at her in confusion and she pulls out a sheet of paper and hands it to me. At the top it says, “15 Reasons Not to Call Emily” only the 15 is crossed out and she’s written 16 in its place.

I scan the list.

1. You deserve better.

2. She spends all your money.

3. She leaves you on read.

It goes on and on until I reach the last one that Vic must have written in recently. She wanted me to choose between her and Spencer.

I slap the paper down on the desk when I finish reading. “That bitch. You guys have been friends since you were kids. How could she ask something like that?”

She lets out a breath and looks almost relieved. Then she shakes her head. “Especially right now. She should have known I’d never abandon him. And not this week of all weeks.”

I catch that statement, but she continues before I can ask about it.

“I’ve known for a long time that she was all wrong for me, you know.” She sighs and takes the list back, slipping it into the top drawer of her desk.

“So why do you keep going back to her?”

“It wasn’t always this way. In the beginning, she was nice. She was sweet. I loved her.”

“What happened?”

Vic sighs and Cerberus lays his head on her knee. She smiles down at him and scratches him again. “I’m not sure which it was, exactly. A few things happened at the same time. It was almost exactly two years ago and she asked me to go out with her. I told her I couldn’t because Spencer needed me. Then she found out who his father was and who my family was and suddenly things shifted. She wanted me to spend less time with Spencer. She was awful to him whenever we were together. She started making me pay for everything because I could afford it. I broke up with her.”

She pauses, but I feel like she’s not quite finished. I’ve noted the reference to Spencer and how he needed her almost exactly two years ago, but I wait to ask. Eventually, she picks up the story again.

“A month or so later, she called me, told me she was sorry for everything. I still loved her so I took her back. It was familiar. I was lonely. But nothing changed. Over these last two years we’ve broken up and gotten back together a bunch of times. It’s always the same. One of us is lonely, we call the other, we’re together for a while, but nothing is different.”

“I understand those feelings. It’s why I tried online dating.”

“How did that go?”

I smile ruefully. “My last date asked me to donate my kidney to him.”

She laughs and I laugh with her. Now that it’s over, it is pretty funny.

But when my laughter subsides, I say, “That was the night I met Spencer.”

She looks at me and it occurs to me why she might have felt relieved by my outburst.

“Did you think I might ask him to choose between me and you, Vic?”

She returns her attention to where Cerberus is still resting his head on her knee. She hasn’t stopped petting him. “I hadn’t considered it might be a problem until last night when Emily asked me to choose.”

“Spencer and I aren’t even together.”

She rolls her eyes and then looks at me like I shouldn’t be so stupid.

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