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Evie smiled sadly. “Abused. It’s okay to say it. That’s one of the things Kitty taught me when I lived next door to her during school. It’s not something I’m ashamed of. Kitty made me realize that the more people talk about domestic violence openly, the less victims will feel like it’s something they need to hide. Anyway, there was a period of about nine months, when I was ten, where we lived with my grandmother. She had been trying to get my mom to leave my dad for years, but it was Kitty who got through to her before we finally left for good. That summer was one of the best years I had growing up, so when I got accepted into a few PhD programs, I decided to go to Emory so I could stay with my grandmother. In my third year, she was diagnosed with an aggressive metastatic cancer and passed away only a few months later. Your grandmother and I were always friendly, but we became close after that.”
I nodded. “She’s talked about you a lot over the years. Though of course, she calls you Everly, so I didn’t put two and two together when I was interviewing Evie.”
She sipped her wine with a grin. “Maybe you would have been a little nicer during my interview if you’d known.”
“Or maybe if we hadn’t met when you were sniffing your armpit in the men’s room…” I fought past a smile.
“I never did get a chance to explain that. I had dropped a cherry on my shirt and stained it, then got stuck on a hot subway for two hours and had to rush to buy a new blouse. While I was getting changed, I realized I should freshen up a bit, but all I had was a wet wipe. When you barged in, I was trying to see if the lemon smell had transferred onto my skin.”
“Number one, you didn’t lock the door. And number two, you were in the men’s fitting room.”
She waved her hand at me. “Technicalities, technicalities. You still used me to amuse yourself. Letting me sit there and squirm, wondering whether you recognized me or not.”
“It wasn’t one of my finer moments. I guess we’d both had a bad day. In my defense, I’d gone to a board meeting the night before and went another round trying to talk them out of forcing my hand to fill this position, only to have them inform me we’d been served with another lawsuit just that morning. Any shot I had of swaying things my way obviously went out the window.”
“How about we make a deal? You won’t mention what you saw in the dressing room again, and I won’t bring up Dave Thomas?” She held out her hand. “It’ll be like having a fresh start.”
I smiled and reached across the table, liking the feel of her tiny hand in mine a little too much. “You got a deal.”
Evie pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, and it opened up a clear view of her slender neck. My fucked-up brain immediately imagined licking along her smooth skin. I had to force my eyes to look anywhere else and cleared my throat. “By the way, my grandmother told me to give you the name of a bulldog lawyer. Do you really need one?”
She sighed. “I do, actually.”
“What kind of lawyer?”
“To represent me in a civil suit. My ex is suing me.”
“Is he trying to get your engagement ring back?”
“No, I gave that back. Actually, I threw it at him. But I did something he claims harmed his reputation.”
“You mean the video you showed at your wedding?”
Evie frowned. “You saw it?”
I wasn’t about to admit I’d watched it several times recently. So I shrugged. “I saw bits and pieces of it.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay, well, that kind of makes it easier anyway. Less to explain at least. My ex, Christian, and his family are suing me for fraud and defamation. He’s claiming I knew about the affair he was having for longer than I did, and that I purposefully racked up unnecessary bills for the wedding with fraudulent intent. He’s also claiming that I harmed his reputation when the video went viral.”
“How long did you know about the affair?”
“Twelve hours maybe? I found out on the evening of our wedding. We’d checked into the hotel where our reception was being held. When we got engaged, Christian’s father had given him the money clip his mother had given to him the day they were married. It was engraved with a sweet note and their wedding date. I’d secretly taken it from his drawer and had our wedding date and a note engraved underneath his parents’ names and message. I’d thought it would make a nice family heirloom. You know, maybe something that could continue being passed down through generations with dates added. Anyway, I wanted to video his reaction when I gave it to him, so I’d set up a camera in the honeymoon suite and told Christian to meet me there. But while I was waiting for him, my sister called to tell me a cabbie had just jumped the curb and run over her husband’s foot. I wound up going to the hospital to be with her for a few hours and forgot all about the camera that was recording. When I got back later that evening, I gave Christian the money clip, and afterward we said goodbye for the night since we were sleeping in separate rooms—the groom’s not supposed to see the bride before the wedding and all.” Evie rolled her eyes. “As if my luck could have gotten any worse. In any case, I’d forgotten all about the camera until after he left. I figured it had probably stopped recording hours ago, but I checked anyway and got the surprise of my life: Christian having sex with my best friend and maid of honor, Mia.”
“Jesus Christ.” I shook my head. “And you had no clue anything was going on between them until that point?”
“Nope. Well, I didn’t at the time, but in hindsight there were some clues I’d missed. Like, Mia’s name popped up on his cell phone once, and the message said something about them meeting. But when I asked Christian about it, he told me to stop being nosy because I was going to ruin the surprise of my bridal shower. And then another time I found Mia’s phone stuck in the cushions of our couch, and she hadn’t been over in a few weeks. She said she must’ve lost it when she was there last time and had been looking all over for it. But I thought it was strange that she’d never mentioned she couldn’t find it, if it went missing right after being at my house. We’re all so attached to our phones, and a new one is like a thousand dollars.” She sighed and frowned. “But never in a million years would I have thought the two of them would do what they did to me. Even after I found the video, I didn’t want to believe it right away. I thought it was a joke at first.”
“Guy’s got some balls suing you after what he did. Even if you did know about it and didn’t call things off to run up the bill, he damn well deserves it. And how can he sue you for defamation? The defense to a lawsuit like that is the truth.”
She smiled halfheartedly. “I think he’s trying to get even with me for embarrassing him publicly. His family has a staff of in-house attorneys, so there isn’t any cost for him. But I’m sure it will wind up costing me a fortune I don’t have. The ironic thing is, I didn’t even want a big, expensive wedding. Christian and his family did. They had more business associates on the guest list than I did friends and family.”
“I’m sorry. That sucks. But I do have a good attorney to recommend, and he owes me a favor or two. I’ll call him tomorrow and see what he can do.”
“Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
I nodded. “Not a problem.”
The waitress came with our dinners. I’d ordered the salmon while Evie had chosen the chicken piccata. She licked her lips, looking over at my plate. “Yours looks good. Are you sharing?”
