Page 53 of Dream Lover
I went to get up, and my brother’s chair scooted back on the cement with a creaking sound.
“No. Allow me. This is my home. She’s not invited or welcome here,” I said to him, motioning for him to sit down. Conner squeezed my thigh as my focus went solely on good old Becky bitch. “Becky, I don’t recall inviting you onto my property. This is a private party. One you weren’t invited to. My brother has made his wishes clear. The wedding is over, and so are you.”
“Andrew is a big boy. He can speak for himself.” Her eyes narrowed on me; the claws were coming out. Everyone, watch out. “He only said what he did because of you.”
Letting out a sigh, Drew got up from his seat, but I interrupted him.
“Ididn’t do a damn thing when it comes to you and my brother. I tried. So damn hard. We all did, but you’re a bitch, Becky. I’m just glad my brother figured it out before that damn ring went on your finger.”
She started coming toward me, hate burning in her gaze. Drew stepped in front of her and halted her steps. “That’s enough, Rebecca. I said all I needed to this morning. You have no business whatsoever showing up here tonight and making a scene. Everything is always about you. How you look. What people think about you. Have you stopped to even ask yourself if what I said to you this morning bared any weight? Did you think about my feelings in any of it? Of course not because you only care about yourself. There is no us. There will be no us in the future. I’m moving out and getting an apartment.”
Stomping a foot, Rebecca growled, “Andrew, you don’t mean that. They’ve gotten into your head. You love me. I know you do. I’m fighting for us.”
“This has nothing to do with my family. I don’t want to marry you. Not now. Not ever. Please leave. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
Her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m not leaving until we talk.”
“We’re done talking.” Drew took a step forward, and his voice went down to an angry growl. “You walk out of here or I make some phone calls to your parents about the credit cards you took out under their names.”
A gasp left me. You could go to prison for that shit. Like a long time and have to pay all the money back, and it wouldn’t be from her parents; it would be the credit card companies going after her ass. Did she even realize how serious that could be?
Hell, did she take any out in his name that he didn’t know about? What else had this woman done? She was obviously capable of a lot.
“You would never do that.”
Drew took a step back, and a small grin tipped his lips. “Wanna bet? I’m done with your shit, woman. I’m done being someone I’m not. I’m done with you. So try me. You don’t leave everyone here or connected to me alone, I’ll have no problem making that call.”
“They’ll never believe you,” she spat out at him.
“Oh, how wrong you are. We lived together, Rebecca. I got the mail and saw the bills. I may have even memorized the account number on the off-chance shit hit the fan. And I may have made a copy of the bill with your parents’ name on it. I also may have seen other things you don’t want others to know.”
“Don’t do that,” she said softly like her number was up. Was it bad I wanted to get up and dance a jig like some drunk man? “I make the payments when I can. I just needed a boost. You wouldn’t give me money. You didn’t want to support me until we were married.”
This woman seriously had no accountability whatsoever.
“Leave me, my friends, and family alone, and I’ll stay quiet,” he responded.
Rebecca didn’t want to give up, though, as she stated, “You’ll be sorry you called this off.”
“I’m only sorry I waited so long to end things.”
“Good riddance,” Carrie muttered under her breath as we watched Rebecca stomp off like a toddler who wasn’t allowed an extra cookie and was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Sorry, guys.” Drew rubbed the back of his neck.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, man.” Conner handed him a beer.
“Did she really do that with the credit cards?” I asked, and Drew nodded. “And you made copies?”
Drew smiled. “Nah. But she doesn’t know that. I loved her and wasn’t thinking clearly. It was just on the pile of shit she fed me every day. At first, she told me her parents knew about it. Then when we started getting calls about the payments, she told me they didn’t.”
“You know you would’ve gotten sidled up with that. Don’t you?” I asked him, wondering why he didn’t leave her when he found out.
He sighed deeply as he sat in the chair. “Again. Stupid. After she told me her folks didn’t know, I should’ve called everything off then. I mean, I shouldn’t have to run my own credit report and sign up for monitoring because of the woman I’m planning to spend the rest of my life with. I’d say love is blind, but it’s not that. I think I got too comfortable, then I began to fear the change. And when stuff started building and building, that should’ve been my cue. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I knew in my gut, but I didn’t listen. You want to know what my cue was?”
“What, man?” Conner asked.
Drew’s gaze went between Conner and me. “You two. When you’re together you smile and have fun. It’s natural. There are no games. It’s pure and true. We didn’t have that. I didn’t have that, and it’s what I want.”
