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"I've heard it's preparation for when you have sleepless nights after the baby's born," I said.
"Well, I'll be ready, if that's the case. I practically sleep sitting up. Luke's really excited about becoming an uncle. It's funny – he never said anything about you. When did you two meet? Are you seeing each other exclusively? Luke seemed to suggest it, but that's so unlike him. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. We're all so happy to see him finally find someone more permanent after everything."
After everything… she must have meant his breakup with his fiancée.
"We don’t know each other really well," I said, feeling bad about lying, but I didn't want to tell her the truth, of course. "He's not the type to be exclusive."
"You got that right. At least, not anymore. Not since last year." I nodded, trying to appear more in the know than I really was.
"Luke never brings anyone to these functions anymore, so I'm surprised he did tonight. He must really like you – or he really hates you and wants to torture you with our highly un-entertaining family."
She gave this delightfully sarcastic laugh, her eyes twinkling. I felt like she was the kind of person I'd like to be friends with. I felt bad that her husband was cheating on her. I could see how Luke would want to punch Eric in the face. Dana was delightful and bubbly.
"You and Luke are twins, right?"
She nodded. "Yes, we were inseparable when we were kids, until we both discovered that we were supposed to hate each other. Until our parents died, we had no idea. They let us be best friends but our adoptive parents didn’t. So, we stopped playing together at that point and went our own ways, but we're really close still. Now more than ever."
The stall opened and so I offered it to her. "You go. I'm sure you need it more than me."
"Oh, thank you!" she said and squeezed my arm. "The baby seems to like sleeping on my bladder so I'm always in and out of the bathroom." She went into the stall and I waited for the next one to open. Being in the stall didn't seem to stop her chatty ways and she kept talking to me over her very loud stream of pee.
"So, what has Luke told you about his past?" she asked.
"Not much," I said, wondering if she'd shed more light on the mystery surrounding the breakup. "What should he have told me?" T
he stall next to hers opened and so I took it and sat down myself.
"He didn’t tell you about his ex?"
“You mean his fiancée?”
“Yes. You know they were childhood sweethearts, and he only found out a week before the wedding that she was cheating on him with her ex. You were at Columbia with him. He was dating her that whole time."
“I’d read it was him who cheated on her,” I said, growing. By the look on her face, I concluded it was a sore spot.
“No, that was the cover story. He let that story out to protect her reputation. I mean, when a woman cheats, it’s like the worst thing. When a man does, at least everyone already expects it. He was being gallant, taking the fall.”
I took that in, totally surprised at the news.
Luke took the fall? It was his ex who cheated?
I had to re-evaluate everything I thought about him.
“He seems really closed up about his past relationships,” I said quickly, trying to cover my mistake. “I can see why he wouldn't want to talk about it. This happened a year ago, right?”
“Yes,” Dana said and I heard her flush. "He's still recovering. He and Felicia went out a few times, but he wasn't into her. So when I saw you with him, I though he was finally over it. You must have met him after they split."
"Yeah, that must be it," I said, trying to come up with a story on the fly. "We did only meet before the end of the semester last year."
"What was he doing at Columbia? He graduated before that," she asked.
"I thought he was taking classes, but I guess he was visiting someone? We met at the pub."
"Well, I hope he's finally over everything. Being with you tonight is a good sign. We were all really surprised to see him with someone tonight. I mean, you're the first other than Felicia since they broke up. It was really nasty."
"He never said a thing," I said, feeling like I'd have to really wing it. "We hadn’t seen each other for a while and then just bumped into each other, so… When I asked about whether he was seeing anyone, he said no. He never filled me in on the details."
"He really turned sour on marriage after the breakup, as you can imagine. It was hard for him to be betrayed like that considering they were together since high school. She'd been fucking this guy all through their relationship but he didn’t want to get married so she stuck with Luke, who did."
