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I scrub my hand over the back of my neck as I lean against the counter. “Well, either way, I’m sorry to come by so early.”
Cooper busies himself making coffee, his back to me as he says, “So what's happened now?”
The weight of everything from this past week threatens to crush me. Cooper already knows everything, up until I went to Chicago last week.
“Alex came to the club last night.”
Cooper turns to face me, his gaze assessing me. “Okay,” he drags out the word, before asking, “Did something happen?”
“Yes.” I look away, the images flashing through my mind fanning the flames of irritation burning inside of me. My jaw ticks as I clench it, fisting my hands at my sides. “She was dancing with a guy, and when she was about to leave with him I had Matt stop her.”
“Right, because you love her. Then what happened?” He says it as if it’s the most normal thing to talk about. Like he’s just commented on the fucking weather.
“Then I took her home and she told me how she felt and I—I left. I feel like the biggest asshole for leaving, but I’m not the man she deserves.”
“First of all, you are an asshole and you have some serious work to do to make it up to her. Which I assume is why you’re here. Secondly, who told you that you weren’t the man she deserves? I assume it wasn’t her.”
Cooper hands me a mug of steaming coffee and leans against the counter, crossing his legs at the ankles as he waits for me to answer.
“I don’t know why I’m here—”
“Yes, you do. Deep down you know, but that’s not the point. I want to know why you don’t think you deserve her.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t deserve her.”
“Yes, you did. When you say you’re not the man she deserves, you’re saying that you don’t think you deserve her. Just answer the question. Why?” When I don’t say anything he continues, “You’re worse than trying to get a hostile witness to talk. Jeez, Seb.”
“She deserves someone who has their shit together.”
Cooper shrugs. “So get your shit together.”
As if it’s that simple.
“It really is that simple,” he says, reading where my thoughts have gone. “Work on yourself, go and get to know the family you’ve found, see a therapist, do whatever you need to do to make yourself believe that you deserve her. God knows it helped me, and now I have everything I thought I never wanted. A wife that I love and who’s blessed me with her love in abundance. I have a beautiful daughter and a son on the way. Nothing else matters to me.”
He makes it sound like I can have it all.
Like Ideserveto have it all.
“Wait here,” Cooper says as he walks off in the direction of his home office.
While he’s gone, I think over all of the things that he and Alex have said to me and how similar their messages are. Have I been wrong this whole time? I was wrong about George, so what else might I be wrong about?
Cooper returns, holding out a business card to me. “Here you go.”
I look down at the card in his hand before taking it and examining it. It’s for a therapist. I assume his own. Cooper hasn’t shied away from sharing the fact that he sought therapy when he and Meghan split. He said it was one of the best decisions of his life.
Maybe it can help?
Maybe it won’t but what’s the worst that can happen.
Sensing my hesitation, Cooper reassures me, “You don’t have to use it right away, or at all, but maybe it’s something to consider if you think that maybe you really do want her.”
“I should get going,” I mumble, my focus on the card in my hand as all the time I’ve spent with Alex plays on a loop in my mind.
“You don’t have to.”
I lift my head, my eyes finding his as I push away from the counter. “I do. I’ve got things I need to do. Thanks for the chat, mate.”
