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“Why he was so weird with you. It wasn’t because he was shy or wanted to take things slow. He had a girlfriend the whole time.”
I cringed as she said the words, wishing this was all just a nightmare I could wake up from. “Then why pursue me? Why see me at all? I don’t understand. If he had a girlfriend, what the hell was he doing with me?”
My mind spun as I tried to make sense of things, searching for logical answers, but it kept coming up empty. Why had Frank continued talking with me, paying me attention, when there was never a future there? Did he honestly think I was the type of girl who could or would be someone’s side piece?
“You’re not going to like my answer,” Britney said.
I looked up, waiting for her to continue her thought. When she didn’t, I raised my eyebrows and waved my hand in a circle, urging her to go on.
“He likes you. Frank likes you. And Ryan said his situation wasn’t black and white, right?”
I huffed out an annoyed breath. “He isn’t allowed to like me. If he has a girlfriend, then he isn’t allowed to like anyone else but her.”
Britney laughed. She fucking laughed. “You can’t put parameters on someone’s heart. You can’t tell them how to feel. It’s not like he was looking to meet you. It just . . . happened.”
I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth. I hadn’t wanted to justify anything Frank had done and think it was okay, regardless of how I felt about him. “No. There’s right and wrong, and what he did was wrong. He should have never made me a part of it. I would never have hung out with him if I knew he had a girlfriend.”
“I know that. Frank probably knows that too. Which is why he didn’t tell you.”
I threw my head back and groaned. “Stop defending him.”
“I’m not. I’m just trying to see it from both sides.”
“You can’t see it from both sides. You don’t have all the information.”
“Neither do you,” she snapped back, and when I flinched, she placed a hand on my leg. “Hey, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think that I’m not pissed off at him, because I am. I’m on your side, truly. I’m just trying to understand his motivation. Frank doesn’t see
m like the dirtbag type, you know?”
“I do know,” I said, my eyes brimming with tears. It made me feel better that Britney hadn’t thought Frank was the kind of man to do this either. It made me feel a little less stupid, a little less naive in my assessment of him and my willingness to give him my heart. Or, at least, my desire to.
“He’s not like your dad, Claudia,” she said out of nowhere.
The hurt of that old betrayal soured the air between us, cutting me straight to the core. My head shot up and I practically snarled at her.
“We don’t know that, though, do we? My mom said that my dad was really charming too. And that she didn’t see it coming. Not when he cheated, and not when he left.”
My dad was definitely a sore subject for me. When I thought about him, emotions bubbled to the surface that I could usually push aside and pretend didn’t exist. But right now, I was brought low by disappointment and betrayal, and felt once again like that little girl left behind without a backward glance.
“Frank knew about it too,” I said softly.
Britney’s eyebrows shot up. “You told him about your dad?”
“Yeah.” I sucked in a breath, hating how the old anger rose inside me.
“Well, hell, Claudia,” Britney breathed out. “He definitely wasn’t telling you he had a girlfriend after hearing that story.”
“Knowing about my dad should have kept him away from me. It should have made him want to do the right thing, not keep doing the wrong one.”
“But maybe you are his right thing? It’s obvious he likes you. I don’t think this was some game to him, or anything sinister like that.”
“Britney, stop.”
“Sorry, but I can’t stop thinking about the things Ryan said. I don’t think Ryan would lie. I think there’s more to the story. Don’t you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to understand why Frank did what he did. I don’t want to give him an excuse or a reason that makes what he did all right,” I admitted as I searched for the real reason behind my apprehension. “I think it’s because I don’t want to understand why my dad did what he did to us. I don’t want it to be okay. It wasn’t okay.” Tears rolled down my cheeks as the pain I’d once felt as a child clawed its way to the surface, tearing me apart.
Britney moved the now-melted ice cream onto the coffee table and scooted next to me, then leaned her head on my shoulder. I wiped at my cheeks, brushing away the tears.
