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“Appetizers?”
“Okay, pretzels and peanuts they had on the tables.”
“And before you went out for happy hour, what had you ladies been up to?”
“I told you that we were going shopping for clothes for Stephanie to take on her trip to Hawaii next week with Marc.”
“Yes, you told me and I remember us reviewing the rules before you went. You could spend up to two-hundred dollars, but if you wanted to go over your budget you were going to call me to discuss it, or did I imagine that conversation?”
Shit, how in the world did he know about her purchases, too?
“I didn’t call you because I didn’t use your credit card,” Presley defended lamely. “I paid for those clothes with my own money.”
“No, Presley, you paid for those clothes with more credit. You just keep digging yourself deeper and deeper into debt, which we’ve also talked about. But… you’re right, for purposes of today’s discussion, that is a rather minor infraction compared to a DUI.”
“I wasn’t driving!” she repeated.
“No, you were riding… in a car with a known drunk driver.”
“Stephanie wasn’t drunk, she was just tipsy.”
“It would seem the police report disagrees. Did you forget that the arresting officer texted a copy of the tickets to all of your phones? His report has her at a blood alcohol content of .09 which is over the legal limit for driving in the state of California.”
“Since when do you just get to go through my phone!”
“Seriously? That’s what you decide to go with when confronted with this mountain of broken rules?”
“I keep telling you, it wasn’t me that broke any rules,” she argued.
But Caleb was having none of it. He knelt in front of her, leaning in close enough that she could feel the brush of his angry breath on her cheek as he retorted.
“What did I say was the most important of the four D rules?”
It took a few seconds for her to answer, “Danger. Not taking risks with my life.”
“Yes, putting yourself in danger will always be the most serious rule to break. And did you get into a moving vehicle with someone you knew had had multiple drinks behind the wheel?”
“Yes, but…”
“No but. Stephanie was legally drunk and she was ticketed for running a stop sign which meant her judgment was impaired. She could have gotten every one of you killed today.”
When he put it that way, it sounded so much worse than it had felt at the time.
“Now let’s talk about deception. In addition to not being forthcoming the minute you saw me tonight, you purposefully put your purchases on a credit card you thought I wouldn’t find out about. But here’s the thing. I haven’t kept my feelings a secret, Presley. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so when put into that context, do you still feel like you continuing to spend outside your budget won’t impact me? That even if I wasn’t involved, you are still sabotaging your future by overspending money you don’t have?”
“You don’t understand. My friends all have tons of money and no limits on their spending.”
“Baby, I do understand, I just won’t give you a pass. You’re too old and way too smart to buckle under to peer pressure. I will never tell you not to be friends with them, but what I am going to insist on is that you have the courage to stand up to any friend who tries pressuring you to do things you know will get you in trouble. If they are your real friends, they’ll understand and be happy for you that you found a man you are happy with. And if they try to convince you to make decisions they knew will damage your relationship with me, well then I would argue they aren’t as good of friends as you think they are.”
“It’s not that easy,” she complained.
“Yes, Presley, it is. You put yourself in grave danger today. You lied to me through omission by not calling me the second the police got involved. Then you made it worse by not being honest the second you arrived at Black Light.
“You disobeyed my rule about calling for expenditures over two-hundred dollars and even tried to lie about your decision by trying to use a credit card you thought I wouldn’t find out about. Then you lied to me about eating dinner.
“Add all this together and I can say that I feel very disrespected right now. You broke each and every D rule, some more than once.”
Shit, shit, shit. This was bad. Worse than bad.
