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“She had some business with Hunter, and the way he introduced her made me think she was an ex-girlfriend of his. He and I weren’t seeing each other at the time, but I liked him… a lot, and I was…”
“Jealous?” Dad says.
“Yes, I was. I practically ignored him for nearly a week… until he explained the misunderstanding.”
“That she wasn’t his ex-girlfriend?”
“No. She was his brother’s ex-girlfriend.”
Mom smiles. “You see? It’s easy to over-react… to misconstrue someone’s actions.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, though.”
“And did Hunter, when he introduced his brother’s ex?”
“Well… no.” On the contrary. He was doing his best to help me at the time.
Dad puts his arm around me, pulling me in to a hug. “We’re not saying H—Hunter was right to say the things he said, or that you’re not entitled to be angry with him. B—But…” He looks over at Mom, struggling to talk.
“You told us he’d been cheated on,” she says.
“Yes.”
“I know what that feels like. Ken cheated on me, and although I didn’t love him, I felt used and hurt… and totally inadequate.” Dad sighs and she looks at him, smiling. “When I met your father, I made his life a misery for a while.”
“N—Not a misery,” he says.
“Okay… I made it very difficult.”
“How?” I ask.
“I used to quiz him every time I saw him… wanting to know where he’d been and who he’d been with. If he was ten minutes late, I convinced myself he’d been with someone else. I never allowed myself to think rationally… that he’d been held up by a student, or a colleague, or even just traffic. No… it had to be that there was another woman involved. It went on for quite a long time until eventually your father persuaded me I didn’t need to feel insecure anymore. He loved me, and he wasn’t going to leave me. Not for anything, or anyone.”
“You’re saying that’s how Hunter feels?”
“He might do… or at least a version of it. His father’s attitude won’t have helped.”
I close my eyes, letting their words wash over me for a moment as I recall Hunter telling me about Sadie, and how he felt when he found her and Austin together. “I shouldn’t have yelled at him, should I?”
“He made you angry,” Dad says.
“Yeah, but venting that anger at him didn’t help the situation. It just made it worse. I should have talked to him. I should have told him how it felt to be accused, and discussed it with him… calmly.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. This wasn’t your fault.”
“But it wasn’t his either, was it? Not this time. Not really.”
Mom smiles. “Why don’t you call him?”
“And say what? Where would I even begin?”
“I don’t know, but you have to start somewhere.” She nods toward my phone, which is on the nightstand, just as it beeps and her smile widens.
“That won’t be him,” I say before she jumps to conclusions. “He doesn’t know my number.”
I grab the phone, flipping it over and look down at the screen. It’s an email from my music streaming app, telling me that this month’s payment has just gone through successfully, and I let out a sigh.
“What’s the matter?” Dad asks.
