Page 72 of Rebound With Me
“Do you honestly not realize that you’re the bad guy in this scenario?”
He nods. “I’m fine with you thinking that.”
“Wow. Fantastic. Big of you.”
“The truth is, Nina, and I’m just going to say it now, since you wouldn’t hear it that day when you tossed my belongings out the window—you ended our relationship long before I did.”
“Uh huh. Remind me how I did that?”
I see his Adam’s apple bob up and down once. His voice is strained. He says, so quietly that my ears strain to hear him, even though I know exactly what he’s going to say before he says it: “You were never in love with me. You never really wanted to marry me. You just thought you should.” He doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t have to. He knows he’s right. He knows I know it’s true.
I feel the tip of my nose tingling and my eyes get watery. For the first time in ages, I remember why I had so much respect for Russell. He can read people. He knows how to treat children who are angry or sad or hurting, when to point things out, when to let them figure things out for themselves. I didn’t think he was very good at dealing with grown-ups. Until now.
“Um. Russell. I just hope you’re happy now. I really do. I don’t want things to be weird for us when school starts.”
“Same here.” He doesn’t say if he’s happy or not, and I really can’t tell either way. “But I’m not kidding about that guy. He’s got a lot going for him, obviously, but there’s some unresolved anger there and it’s as plain as the tattoos on his arm.”
I don’t disagree, but I have to say something. “I love the tattoos on his arm.”
“I’m sure.” He lifts his coffee cup to his lips and says, with a smirk: “I got a tattoo.”
“Shut up.”
“I did. Just a little one. I can’t show it to you, it’s in a private place, obviously.”
I have to ask. “What’s it of?”
“A line from an Amy Winehouse song.”
If I were drinking my coffee I would have done a spit-take. “It is not.”
“It is. Sadie got me into her. I can’t believe I never listened to her before. She moves me in ways that…I never expected.”
I don’t ask him if he means Amy Winehouse or Sadie. He seems just as mystified by everything that’s going on as I am right now, and all I can think about is whether or not Vince is in the lobby feeling moved in ways that I could never move him.
