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“My dad hated him on sight. I assumed it was because he was older than me and more sophisticated. Plus, he spoke to me in French right in front of my dad. It was all innocent French words thrown in between English ones, but to my dad’s ears, I’m sure it sounded like he was saying he planned on defiling his daughter in thirty different ways on the kitchen table right in front of him. I should have probably questioned my dad’s hatred a little more, but I was a teenage girl and all it did was piss me off and make me want to defy him.”
“Whatever you want, mon amour, it’s yours. I’ll make all your dreams come true.”
I pause to close my eyes, take a breath, and get my bearings, remembering that I’m sitting with my friends who love me and would never judge me for the choices I made, and that I’m not that same stupid, young, teenage girl.
Opening my eyes, I see that my glass has been refilled again, and I smile at Belle.
“Suck that Underwear Dropper back, baby,” she tells me, returning my smile and clinking her glass with mine before doing the same with Cindy.
We all toss back the drink and my friends remain quiet so I can continue.
“We were together every waking minute for the next year while I finished high school and tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I had no clue what I wanted to do; all I knew was that I wanted to be with Sebastian. He promised me the world. He promised he would do everything to make me happy and support me with whatever I decided to do,” I explain, hating myself for being such a trusting fool. “All my life my dad had been grooming me to work at the family used car lot but when I started getting serious with Sebastian, he did everything he could to try and convince me to go away to college, telling me I could have any career I wanted as long as I got out of town and explored all my options. He wanted me as far away from Sebastian as possible. Two hours after I graduated high school, Sebastian and I were on a plane to Vegas. I left my dad a note, and I eloped with the cutest boy I’d ever seen.”
I don’t even realize I’m crying until I feel wetness on my cheeks. I swipe away the tears angrily as Cindy quietly grabs a box of tissues in a fucking fancy crystal container from the end of the bar and holds it in front of me. I snatch one out it and wipe my cheeks dry.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the cutest boy you’d ever seen turned out to not be as supportive and amazing,” Cindy says quietly.
“Understatement of the fucking century.” I nod. “As soon as we got home and found an apartment, it was like I woke up one day next to a completely different person. Or maybe he was always that person and I was just too blind and too stubborn trying to defy my father to see it. He spent his days on the couch smoking pot and playing PlayStation while I worked two jobs just to pay the rent, put food on the table, support his pot-and-munchie problem. He had big dreams of working on a cruise ship and traveling the world. Then he wanted to be a boat captain. Then he wanted to own his own boat. I got a third job so he could take boating lessons. He went to two of them and said it was boring and he was above taking orders from someone else.”
“Jesus, he sounds like cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” Cindy mutters. “Was he holding out for a management position?”
The three of us share a much-needed laugh at the line from the movie.
“Pretty much. Everything and everyone was beneath him. Including me. As time wore on, the sweet endearments that charmed me from day one became backhanded compliments. ‘That dress looks nice on you, but are you sure you should wear something so tight?’” I say it in my best French accent. “And then the backhanded compliments just turned into criticisms. I was too curvy, my boobs were too big, my hair was too red, my skin was too pale, I wasn’t outgoing enough, I was too outgoing, and did I really need that second donut?”
Cindy gasps and Belle growls under her breath.
“Tell me where he lives. Tell me where he lives right now and I will cut off his balls,” Belle threatens.
God, I love my friends. Why the hell didn’t I tell them this sooner?
“Anyway, after the first year of marriage, I went to a garage sale and found my first antique. I was immediately drawn to it and had to have it. I don’t even remember what it was now. Probably a vase or something like that,” I tell them with a shrug. “I became obsessed with beautiful things that someone didn’t appreciate. Things that were worth so much more than sitting on a rusty table in someone’s garage being sold for fifty cents. I spent every weekend I didn’t work going to garage sales and flea markets, finding things, cleaning them up, and selling them online. I never told Sebastian. I knew he would find some way to make fun of me or ruin something that made me happy.”
