Page 100 of Best In Class
I nod. “After you left, she…said she’d never seen a person as broken as you. She slapped me. Didn’t talk to me again.”
“I should send her a thank-you fruit basket. Years late, but hell, so the fuck are you.”
Yeah! The alcohol was making her extra belligerent, and as this conversation progressed, I’d probably get the pitcher of iced tea thrown at me.
“I fucked up, Luna. I…got scared.”
She wags a finger at me. “But it was more than that.”
“Yes. I wanted to be worthy of you.”
She rolls her eyes and refills her glass. I pick up the pitcher and sniff it.
Yeah, it’s loaded!
“And you thought you’d be that by cheating on me?”
I lower my gaze and shake my head. I take a moment to try and figure out how to tell what I have to; and when I decide I’ll just go with the truth, I look her in the eye.
“I wasn’t thinking. Lev called to tell me you were on your way?—”
“I’m going to castrate that asshole.”
She doesn’t sound drunkat all.
All that anger inside her is burning the alcohol right off!
“I knew that your father finding out you came to see me would mean he’d fire Mama. I couldn’t take care ofher and go to school. I thought, the hell with it, I’ll quit school, but then…then I’d never be fit for you.”
“I could’ve paid for your school. I had access to the first quarter of my trust fund. Lev could’ve paid, and?—”
“Wanted to do it myself, Luna,” I interrupted her, heated. “Didn’t want my girlfriend to pay for me. Okay?”
“Oh, I get it.” Her lips curl into a smirk. Her eyes are ablaze with rage. “You’d rather have your girlfriend think you’re cheating on her rather than?—”
“I was twenty-fucking-one years old, Luna. I got scared.”
“And now you want to rewrite history because it’s convenient?” she challenges.
“No. I want to rewrite our future,” I say gently. “But I know I can’t ask for that if I don’t give you everything. So I will. Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you.”
She shakes her head, eyes shimmering. “You say that, but the truth never comes easy with you, Dom. You hold it back like it costs something.”
“Ithascost me,” I growl. “You. Us.”
Her jaw clenches. “And what do you think hearing this now does to me? You don’t get to tell me you love me while still feeding me half-truths and omissions. That’s not love. That’s manipulation.”
“I love you,” I roar in frustration. “I love you so much and I’m so fuckin’ afraid of losing you.”
I rise and pace the gazebo. “I’ve been…God! I hate your fucking father.”
“Join the club!” She yells at me. “You know,Iwas scared that I’d end up like my mother with you? That I’d put upwith you having women on the side and have to live on Xanax. But now I don’t even know what to think. Dad lies to Mama, yes, but heactuallycheats on her.”
“I should get points for not cheating on you, don’t you?—”
Her glass of iced tea crashes at my feet, making my sneakers wet. Well, at least she can’t drink anymore.
No more glasses.
