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Her smile is sweet, nod is quick. “Is that horrible of me?”
“No, it’s not horrible at all,” I reassure, glancing at the fire as it crackles. “I can see how all of this with Liam is confusing.” I stare at the vibrant flames, discovering I don’t like how I’ve been perceived. I want her to understand. I take a long gulp of my beer before I return to the past. “I slept with Liam’s girlfriend Sophia.”
Mallory’s mouth drops open, eyes widen. “You what?” she finally sputters.
I chuckle against the rim of my beer bottle and take another swig before lowering the bottle back to the armrest. “I take it that was the last thing you were expecting me to say?”
“Yes, totally, completely, the very last thing I thought you’d say.” She’s statue still in her seat, unblinking. “I thought maybe it had to do with business or money or something but wait…you slept with his girlfriend?”
“I did,” I confirm.
Mallory finally blinks, settling back into her seat. “When did this happen?”
“Back in law school when we were roommates.”
She blinks again. “You were roommates?”
“We were.”
Eyes still wide, she sips her wine, obviously attempting to recover from how I’ve blindsided her. After she swallows, she gives her head a firm shake and finally says, “Okay, that’s going to take a minute to process so let me just say that I’m surprised you guys lived together. In fact, I’m even more surprised that arrangement didn’t end up in murder.”
I laugh at her joke, tilting my beer bottle toward her. “You and me both, and believe me, we almost did kill each other.”
Mallory’s eyes slowly return to normal. She glances at the fire, obviously taking in what I’ve told her before addressing me again. “Can I ask what happened? Was it like a love triangle or something?”
“There are two sides to this story,” I tell her simply. “My side and Liam’s side, and I’m sure they sound very different.”
She waves me on. “Okay, what’s your side?”
The fire crackles again. I glance at the flickering flames, revisiting that time in my life. “I slept with Sophia to force Liam to see the person that she was.” He’d been so blind back then. Maybe he still was that blind. I didn’t really give a shit either way. “Sophia was going to cheat on him. Whether it be me or someone else, and he was falling for her hard.”
Mallory’s expression turns incredulous. “So, you were saving him by sleeping with her? Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s how I saw it.”
“And Liam?”
I give a hard smile. “He didn’t see it that way.”
Mallory gives a
small shrug. “Honestly, I can kind of see where he’s coming from.” Her voice gets soft, small. “It’s a pretty shitty thing to do to someone, let alone your roommate and friend.”
I’m not offended she sides with Liam. I like her honesty. It’s a trait that I don’t see much of nowadays. Everyone wants to please me. Kiss my ass. I like that she tells it to me straight. “You’re right, it is a fucked-up thing to do to anyone, on one hand.”
“And on the other hand?”
“Liam wouldn’t listen, no matter what I said. I told him time and time again that she was a gold-digging, unfaithful bitch, but he wouldn’t hear me. She had his head all fucked up.”
“Okay, I guess I can understand that, but why did you go to those extremes to get him to see how terrible she was?”
An ember suddenly shoots out from the flames, and I extinguish it with the heel of my shoe, explaining, “He was going to propose to her.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I say with a nod. “He told me that he planned that next week to buy the ring. This chick was a piece of work, and she had him played. He simply couldn’t see it.”
I watch Mallory for a moment, while she’s watching me intently. It’s hard for me to read her but I think I like that about her. I need to work to get inside her head. I have to earn it.
