Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
By the time Scott arrived, I’d decided to get everything out in the open, as quickly as possible.
He met me in the formal living room, where I sat in the low, sturdy armchair directly facing the doors.
“Hey, man. Where’s Charlotte?”
“Charlotte is on a flight back to California,” I said. “She left this morning.”
He looked over his shoulder in confusion, then back to me. “Wait, why?”
“Because she found out that you were fucking my sister, got freaked out, and left.” I gave myself a moment of mean satisfaction at the shock on his face before continuing. “Yeah, as it turns out, the whole time you were worried that me fucking your sister would mess things up for you and me, it was you fucking my sister that caused the problem.”
“Hey,” he snapped. “Don’t talk about them like that.”
“I’m sorry, was there some other way to describe what you were doing with my sister? Were you two dating? Were you in love?” I asked.
“Come on—”
“Because from what Charlotte overheard, you were taking the breakup pretty hard. You didn’t realize that while Catherine was cheating on her husband with you, she was also cheating on you with someone else?” I waited for something. A response, maybe. Or a punch.
Scott offered neither. He sighed heavily and walked like a man in lead boots all the way to the sofa. “I was going to tell you.”
“I’m sure you were. Were you having a difficult time trying to figure out a way to do that while simultaneously justifying your hypocrisy?” God, I hoped he felt as squirmy and sleazy as I had when he’d confronted me about Charlotte and I. “How did it even happen? When?”
“After your blood clot.” He gestured to my leg. “When you were basically comatose. I came to see you, and Catherine was there.”
“Did you think, great, I’ll get payback now for him sleeping with my sister?” It was unfair to attribute that motive to him; Scott was a good person. He wouldn’t do anything that shitty.
“No.” He shook his head firmly. “It never crossed my mind.”
“Then how did it happen? Because I know it wasn’t her sparkling personality that attracted you to her.”
“Don’t talk about her like that,” he snapped. He pushed his hand through his hair. “We thought you were going to die. She was inconsolable, and one thing led to another.”
“I’m sorry, Catherine was inconsolable about the fact that I might have died?” That was a little too far-fetched.
“Yes. She doesn’t like you, but you’re still her brother. And she was worried about the effect it would have on your mom and— You know what? I don’t have to fix your family problems. If you want to know how she felt about you almost dying, go ask her yourself.” He stood up and stalked toward the door.
“You don’t have an obligation to fix my family problems, but if you walk out now, we’re going to have an unfixable friendship,” I warned him, getting to my feet. The deathly calm of my voice startled me.
He turned. “I didn’t do anything to our friendship that you didn’t do too.”
“You did it first.” That sounded so childish. I tried again. “You knew you’d slept with my sister, and you’d had enough of a relationship with her that you thought you loved her. But when I fell in love with your sister—who is now running away from me as fast as a commercial airliner can fly—you acted like I’d set fire to your dog!”
“Yeah, maybe I didn’t react correctly when I was left at the altar while my best friend was being attacked by a grizzly bear, and he chose that exact moment to disclose that he had sex with my much younger sister. But this is exactly what I was worried was going to happen. She’s going to run off and break both of your hearts.”
“She’s coming back!”
“She doesn’t come back!”
I wished he would have just punched me.
“Look,” he began, the rasp in his voice an apology, “I don’t know what happened that sent her running. But she seemed happy with you. Happier than I’ve seen her in a long time. Did you have an argument or something?”
“No. She was a little distant after she overheard you and Catherine.” I’d been over and over the conversation in my mind. “We didn’t argue about it at all.”
“Maybe you said something in anger about me?” Scott suggested.
“Nice try.”
“I’m not asking so I can be pissed off at you. Charlotte feels responsible for me because she feels like she failed me when she was born.” The words must taste like gasoline to him, judging by his expression. “If you said something she interpreted as unfair to me, even if it was a random comment that you made in anger, that could have been enough to get into her head.”