AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re still hung up on this thing,” he said. “Shit. It’s about time you got over that.”
“I slept with her. Again.”
He almost wrecked the cart. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m not so sure now,” I said.
“I’m going to need you to go back a minute,” he said. “You slept with her? Here? I’m so confused. Does that mean you hired an investigator? You found her?”
“No. She showed up at the office. Mom didn’t tell you?”
“No,” he said, laughing. “What the hell?”
“Long story short, she applied for the assistant job not realizing it was my company,” I explained. “It didn’t go well. She walked out in a huff after a sham interview. After she left, I realized it was the perfect opportunity to finally get back at her. I tried to hire her, but she rejected the offer. I decided to finally accept the invitation to talk at the college she works at. She and I spent a little time together. I convinced her to go to dinner with me. We went out and had a little wine.”
He groaned and shook his head. “Maybe you should learn that alcohol plus that woman plus you don’t mix well.”
“Actually, they work very well,” I said.
“Fast forward to the part that has you all screwed up,” he said.
“I took her to dinner with the intention of winning her over,” I said. “My plan was to get her to fall for me. We ended up at a hotel, and well, you know what happened. I waited until she passed out and then I split. I left her like she had left me.”
“I always thought I was supposed to be the younger, more immature brother,” he joked.
“It wasn’t immature,” I said. “It was devious.”
“I think you’re putting way too much effort into making this woman feel guilty,” he said.
“Trust me, it wasn’t much effort to get into bed with her,” I said. “It was very easy really. It’s not like it was hard to sleep with her.”
“You know what I mean,” he said. “You have spent nearly a decade hating this woman. You’ve hated her and loved her at the same time. Isn’t that exhausting? I don’t understand the hang-up. You have to let this woman go. You cannot keep carrying this baggage around. You got your revenge and it clearly did nothing to help matters.”
“I thought I would feel better if I could see her one more time and show her what it felt like to be screwed over,” I said.
“And you don’t?”
“No,” I said. “I did but now I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing.”
“Look, I know you don’t like taking advice from your little brother, but I have to say this,” he said.
“This should be good,” I said.
“You are treating this woman like she’s a criminal,” he said. “She was celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas. Twenty-one. Remember what you were doing at that age? I do. You were definitely not thinking about settling down. She was young and on a weekend trip with her girlfriends. She was having fun. That’s it. You’re the one who fell head over heels for her. You act like she set out to fuck you over. I think you’re pissed at her because you fell in love and she didn’t.”
“But she said she did,” I argued.
“And you were both drunk,” he said. “You admitted to that.”
“We were drunk, but I remember every detail,” I said. “I don’t think either of us was that drunk. She made it seem like she was crazy about me.”
“Jessica and I dated for a year before I could say I loved her,” he said. “We both felt love, but we weren’t ready to admit we loved each other because it felt too soon. We spent a long time getting to know each other. We figured out what we did and didn’t like. After I asked her to marry me, we were engaged another full year. We had to get to know each other before we jumped into marriage. You don’t even know this woman. You have a fantasy in your head. Fantasy is not reality.”
“Some people just know,” I said. “They know when it’s right.”
“Maybe, but just because you know doesn’t meansheknows,” he said. “You are carrying this huge grudge and I don’t know if that’s fair. She agreed to go to dinner with you. I think that means she doesn’t hate you. She doesn’t know you. Maybe she thought dinner was the chance to get to know you. The chance to see if all those feelings were real or just the result of alcohol.”
“Why’d she run out on me?” I asked.
