Page 124 of Meet Cute Reboot

“You brought these to soften me up,” I say.

“Maybe.”

The kitten squirms in my hands. “They’re getting stronger.”

“Yeah. I’m rethinking my plan to have ten kids. This feeding schedule is brutal. I’m not sure I could do it with ten little humans.”

I laugh. “I know I couldn’t.”

“I’m sorry about Macy.”

I scratch Cheez Whiz on the head. I’m not sure which yellow tabby is which, but I’ll assume this little guy is Cheez. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

“I tried to tell you when we were kayaking, but all you wanted to do was kiss me.”

I grin at him. “So it’s my fault.”

“Sorta.”

“Well... Why don’t you tell me about her now?”

Luke reaches down and scratches one of the kittens. It hisses at him, but he’s unfazed. He clears his throat. “After we broke up, I kind of lost it.”

“You binge-watched superhero movies.”

He nods. “When I wasn’t doing that, I was working too hard, when I wasn’t working too hard, I didn’t date. I couldn’t. But I finally forced myself. I went to Las Vegas with a woman named Jen and came home with Macy.”

I raise an eyebrow at Luke. “Did you leave Jen in the casino?”

“I sent her home on a plane. Macy and I drove back.”

As I rub Cheez Whiz on the neck, his eyelids begin to fall. He relaxes into sleep.

“Macy and I hooked up and started dating. The relationship was a mess. She’d accuse me of cheating, I’d tell her the truth—that I wasn’t cheating. She’d tell me she loved me, and I wouldn’t say it back, and we’d have hours-long fights about how I was afraid to commit, how she was giving me everything, and I was holding back. I suppose she was right, but it was excessive. Every weekend. Fight. Make up. Fight. Make up. Like I was watching the world’s longest tennis match.

“Then one day, she came to me and said she was pregnant with my child. I left. Just got in my car and drove for three hours. I didn’t love her. I didn’t want to have a baby with her. But it wasmybaby. And as time wore on, through doctor visit after doctor visit, I started to warm to the idea. I was going to be a dad. I could see myself playing catch with my kid at the park, wrestling with him in the living room. Cleaning up his puke. My mind went through every scenario. I imagined my son as a teenager, learning to drive, going away to college...”

Luke flicks his thumb across his forehead. “I thought I was going to be a dad.” He leans back, covers his face with his hands, rubs his eyes.

I press Cheez Wiz to my chest, remembering the shock I felt when I learned Luke cheated on me. But in Luke’s case, there was a kid involved. A kid he thought was his own for nine months. I can’t fathom the pain he must have felt.

“Anyway,” he finally continues. “That’s when everything started to change for me.” He leans over slightly, pressing his palms together. “I felt all the wrongs I’ve committed against women, every single one of them, except I felt what they must have felt. Whatyoumust have felt. I’m not saying this for sympathy or to make me look good. I just mean, it was a hard time. A really hard time. And I deserved every second of it.”

I take a deep breath as I try to come to terms with this new slice of Luke’s past.

“I came out the other side a changed man,” he continues. “I know it’s hard to believe. How can someone do a one-eighty and change? But it happened. I’m different. Down to my bones.”

People can change. I know they can. I’d be a hypocrite to say otherwise. People deserve grace. I know that much. But people need boundaries too.

I put Cheez Whiz in the box and give the other three head scratches before sitting back up. Luke’s shoe is untied, the laces splayed out on the wood floor. “Your shoe is untied.”

Luke sighs, bends over, makes two bunny ears.

“Double knot it.”

He obeys and then sits up, searches my face a moment before saying, “Cassie. I’m really sorry.”

“You keep saying that.” I shift in my seat. “And that’s all good. But I don’t know the new you very well. The new Luke.”

---