Page 64 of A Constant Reminder

I nodded. “Sam said I should be thanking you.”

He choked on his sip of beer. “For what?”

“For breaking up Mer and me. She thinks that without you doing that, I would have never gone after her.”

“Well, you’re welcome,” he winked. “But I don’t believe that. I think you and Mer were on a one-way ticket to Splits-Ville, and it was only a matter of time. You guys loved each other, but almost in a friends who liked to fuck kind of way.”

My mind wondered how true that was. I thought I had loved Marisol, and I think part of me did. But the love I had for Sam far outweighed anything I had felt in the past.

I hoped that by mending fences with Andrew that I could move on from that part of my life. Move on from Marisol once and for all. She’d probably always be somewhat in my life due to our family ties, but maybe we could just finally get past the bullshit and coexist.

The rest of our night passed with a couple more beers and a couple of burgers. I was careful not to spill any details about the James situation, and I was equally as careful to tiptoe around the subject of Andrew’s time in the military. He didn’t seem to want to relive it, and I wasn’t going to pry.

It did feel good to have him back again. On my way home, I reminisced about when we were kids. Andrew’s parents ran in the same circles as mine, but his mom died in a car accident when he was a teenager. After that, his dad started headed down a dark path and spent whatever fortune they once had on either booze or gambling.

It didn’t take long for them to be left with nothing. His dad didn’t seem to want to change, so my parents let Andrew stay at the house every time he went on a bender. My mom knew what it was like to grow up with a drunk, so she was always welcoming.

We would spend our days getting into all sorts of trouble but never getting caught. We’d see who could score the hottest girl or who could drink the most without throwing up.

After high school, I knew he was lost. He tried college, but it didn’t seem to be for him. He stayed at the house with Tess and me for a little while before making the decision to go into the army. Despite my feelings towards his actions with Marisol, I always respected him for that decision. Any man or woman who put their lives on the line for their country had my respect.

Thoughts ran through my mind of the past few years. I had lost the woman I loved and my best friend all in one swoop. The partying, the drinking, and all the sex helped me to cope with both of those losses. Every single day, I woke up putting on a happy face and pretending I had something to live for. I went through the motions of trying to be the cool, rich guy everyone liked.

And then Sam changed all that. Despite the bad that we had encountered together, she gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. I cared enough about another person to put them ahead of myself. She told me that I made her a whole person again, but that’s not the truth…or the whole truth.

She put me back together just as much. I was a broken man who only cared about partying, money, and pussy.

It was clear from the start that my money was going to get me nowhere with her. No. I was going have to work for any type of real connection. And I knew if I didn’t change my party boy ways, I’d never really have her.

So, as much as I helped her to move on from her past, she had helped me do the same. She made me care again…made me see that not everyone was just after my money.

As cliché as it may sound, she made me a better man.

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