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“You still shut me out.”
“I told you to stay out of one confrontation that did not belong to you.”
Her eyes flash. “Nothing belongs to me unless everyone else decides I can handle it.”
I step back from the doorway. “Come inside before you wake the entire floor.”
Charm walks past me without answering, and I close the door behind her.
My jacket lies across the chair where I threw it before the party. The garment bag Bliss delivered hangs partially open near the wardrobe, and my discarded pastel shirts remain at the end of the bed. The bottle of mezcal sits on the nightstand beside the glass I abandoned when Charm knocked.
She stops in the center of the room and turns toward me. “You don’t get to decide when I’m allowed to have a voice.”
I close the door and lock it. “You had a voice. I told you that wasn’t the time to use it.”
“Lance was attacking you.”
“Yes.”
“He hit you.”
“Twice.”
“And I was supposed to stand there and watch?”
“You were supposed to listen when I told you it was between him and me.”
“He is Lance, Ryan.”
“He was talking about my mother.”
The answer stops her for half a second, but her anger moves faster than whatever understanding might have reached her.
“And don’t even get me started on my mother leaving him.” Charm throws both hands outward. “How long has everyone known about that?”
“She told me tonight.”
Charm stares at me. “What?”
“Your mother told me tonight. Before the party.”
“And you didn’t think I should know?”
“Can you check your spoiled bullshit at the door for five fucking minutes?” My voice rises before I can stop it, but I am too far beyond exhausted to drag it back down. “You found out tonight that your father spent fifteen months trying to destroy my career and making sure I couldn’t move on with my life. I didn’t think that was the perfect moment to announce that your mother had finally done something worthy of your forgiveness.”
“You had no right to decide that for me.”
“I wasn’t deciding anything for you. I was trying to survive the information she gave me while standing beside you at a party.”
“You still used it against him.”
“Yes, I fucking did.”
“In front of everyone.”
“He called my mother a whore in front of everyone.”
Charm flinches, but I refuse to soften the words for her.
