Page 60 of On the Rocks

“Really?”

“When I first started dating him, I thought he was cute and fun, and I liked spending time with him, but it wasn’t…” She flushed, looking away from me. “Well, it wasn’t as intense as what I was used to. Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting it to last. I thought we’d date for a while and go our separate ways. But when everything happened with my dad senior year, he was there for me. By the time the dust settled, and mom and I were okay again, he’d become such a fixture in my life that it never occurred to me to question it. We settled into the routine of being together. We probably would have stayed in that rut forever if he hadn’t met Sally. I still hate the way he handled things, but I have to say, him leaving was probably the biggest favor he ever did for me. He set both of us free.”

“I’m glad you can see it that way,” I said. “Too bad he doesn’t seem to agree.”

“Yeah.” She wrinkled her nose. “Let’s just hope he got the message that I’m very definitely not interested. Though…” She smiled mischievously. “It probably twisted the knife a little to have the message come from you. He was always so jealous of you, you know?”

I smirked. “Was he really?”

“Of course he was. He knew you were my first. And he knew…well, he knew that the reason I started going out with him was because I was on the rebound from you.”

My smirk faded fast. “Rebound?” I repeated.

“My self-esteem took a bit of a hit when you ended things. He made me feel good about myself again.”

“I didn’t realize you’d struggled,” I said. Cora had always carried herself so well after the breakup. She’d seemed bubbly, always surrounded by a chattering group of friends. Working on the yearbook. Stage managing the school play. Frankly, for a time I’d wondered how she could have gotten over me so quickly. But I’d constantly reminded myself that I was the one who broke up with her, so I had no right to judge how she handled it. And besides, I knew she deserved to be happy, however quickly that happened.

“Why would you have? It’s not exactly like we stayed close after our breakup. And by that point in the year, you had other things to worry about. College applications. Football. Graduation.”

“I know…but…god, Cora. I’m so sorry.” Here I was judging Levi for the way he’d treated her, but had I been any better? No, Ihadn’t smashed a fifteen-year-relationship, but I’d also broken up with her without much warning. At the time, ending things had felt necessary, but looking back on it now, I could see how badly I’d handled it. Had I hurt her as badly as Levi had? And worse, was I to blame for everything she’d gone through with Levi? “I didn’t mean to chase you into his arms.”

“You didn’tchaseme,” she reasoned.

“Maybe not, but if you only dated him because of the way I made you feel?—”

She shook her head, interrupting my thought. “Look, it’s not all on you. Please don’t think I’m blaming you for my own choices or Levi’s behavior. I was the one who chose to stay with him—even with the warning signs.”

I frowned, disliking the sound of that. “What do you mean warning signs?”

“Just little things,” she said, picking at the fabric of her dress. “After we broke up, I started to look back and really think about the compromises I made along the way, you know? I should have noticed how easy it was for him to dismiss my feelings when they got in the way of him doing what he wanted. Specifically, the way he flirted with other women.”

“He did that while you were together?”

“Oh, all the time. I told him it made me uncomfortable, and he just laughed it off and said I was overreacting—that it wasn’t like he was going behind my back or actually fooling around with anyone, so that made it okay. But it wasn’t okay withme,and I should have stood my ground.”

At least that was a point for me. Despite the fact I’d broken her heart, one thing I could say without a doubt was that I’d never even looked at another girl the whole time I was with her. Everyone else faded in comparison, anyway.

“Honestly, my first warning sign should have been our first date, when we went to homecoming together.”

I grimaced. “How’d that go?”

She tossed her head back with a wry smile, as if she finally had enough distance to see the humor in something that had been pretty awful at the time. “He’d already made plans to go with another girl, just as friends he assured me, before we started dating. And instead of telling that other girl he couldn’t take her anymore since he now had a girlfriend, he ended up taking us both.”

“Oh, god. He didn’t?”

Cora nodded. “He did. And I can assure you it was deeply awkward for everyone involved.”

I pressed my fist to my lips, hiding my pained smile. “I’ll bet.”

“He actually took turns slow dancing with us. During the same song!”

I dropped my head in my hands, groaning, imagining Cora standing on the dance floor, arms crossed, waiting for her thirty seconds of Levi’s attention. I wasn’t even angry at the guy anymore. It was all too absurd.

“But, you know,” Cora continued, “I made excuses for him, choosing to believe he was just trying to be a good guy—that he’d kept his promise to be the other girl’s date because he didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”

“He probably didn’t want to have a hard conversation with the other girl about canceling their plans, so he took the coward’s way out,” I said.

“Or worse,” Cora said. “Maybe he wanted to string her along in case our date didn’t work out.” She let out a heavy breath. “Probably should have seen this whole Sally thing coming from a mile away.”

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