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“Oh my god.” Her hand flew to her forehead as she pivoted in place for a moment, too mad to know what to do with herself.
“You’ll have to sign off on a new estimate. I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.”
“Exactly how long have you known about this?” she fired back.
“Since the first day on the job,” I admitted.
I was so ashamed. I always thought of myself as an honorable man, someone with integrity, especially when it came to my work and how I treated people. But here I was, being selfish and lying about a job just to keep a pretty woman around.
Of course, it was more than that. Melody wasn’t just any random, ordinary pretty woman. She was special, and she meant more to me than I wanted to admit. Maybe part of me sensed that from the very beginning, and that’s why it was so hard to tell her the truth. But that didn’t justify me lying to her.
“I can’t believe this,” she murmured, her voice shaking with anger. “You lied to me! And not just about some small stupid thing, but about something this big! This affectsmy life, Derek. My whole life that’s waiting for me back in New York. As if I hadn’t already been through enough, then I had to put everything on hold and come all the way here to take care of all of this. You knew about my horrible breakup and how I was grieving my mom. I thought you were here to make things easier on me. Not harder! And all for what? So you could…so you could sleep with me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Now wait just a damn minute,” I barked. “That had absolutely nothing to do with it. I didn’t expect that to happen between us the other night. I didn’t even want to sleep with you!”
I knew the moment the words slipped out of my mouth that I had made a mistake, which was confirmed by the horrid look on her face.
“That…that didn’t come out right,” I stammered, trying to explain. “I meant…I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, but it did, and….”
“I think you should go,” she snapped, crossing her arms as she tried to stop herself from crying.
“Come on, not like this,” I pleaded. “I swear I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I was only trying to say that sleeping with you, or going out with you at all, really wasn’t my intention when I….”
“When you lied to me?” she fumed. “When you withheld important information from me that has a serious impact on my job and my entire life all so you could keep me around longer? Whether you meant for things to happen the way they did or not, that’s still so incredibly messed up, Derek. And the worst part is,” she shook her head. “I actually thought you were one of the good guys.”
She spun around on her heels, unable to look at me anymore. “Please go. Now,” she croaked. I could tell she was crying now and didn’t want me to see.
I hesitated for a moment, racking my brain for anything I could try to say to make this better. But none of it was so simple to explain. Even if it was, it didn’t make what I did okay. My dad always taught us that if we made a mistake, the least we could do was buck up and take the consequences like a man. That’s all there was left for me to do. Own up to it, apologize, and leave.
“I really am sorry, Melody,” I offered, for whatever it was worth. I started backing up towards the door, adding as I went, “I’ll have Keith give you a call tomorrow to work out the details if you want to finish the job.”
She didn’t turn around. I showed myself out.
20
MELODY
I paced back and forth in front of the overgrown weeds behind the lake house with my hands on my hips, shooting them the same scowl I gave Derek earlier that afternoon when he finally told me the truth.
Did I know the first thing about gardening? No. That’s why I hadn’t touched the long stalks, some as tall as me, before that moment. But I desperately needed something to take my frustrations out on, and I had failed miserably at my attempt to chop wood. It was harder than it looked, and it was also another reminder of how the last place I belonged in the middle of winter was Silver Point.
With a pair of gloves, I found in the garage, I gripped one of the tall weeds and started to pull. It was a struggle,
“Stuck,” I hissed in resentment, side-eying the ax still lodged in the big log. “That makes two of us.”
Eventually, it came sliding out of the ground, roots and all. I let out an almost maniacal laugh. I was in the mood to rip things up.
I threw my strength into pulling the next one, and then another. I worked my way down the line, grumbling to myself the whole way. With each successful pull of the weeds, my quiet cynical muttering raised into abrupt shouting.
“Crossed too many lines, I’ll say.Didn’t want me to leave…psh. Didn’t. Even.Want. To. Sleep. With. Me! Ha! You sure had me fooled, buddy. This stupid lake house and this stupid town with its shitty internet and firefighters, who are total jerks! Just like the rest of the men in the world!”
As my shouts got louder and carried across the lake, the ducks started quacking up a storm and running around in worried circles.
“What are you so worked up about?” I scoffed resentfully. “Nothing is stopping you from flying off when you decide it’s time to fly south for winter. But me? Oh, don’t mind me. I’ll just be stuck here. Don’t worry. I’ll probably see you next Spring when you come back. This stupid house probably won’t even be finished by then!”
I must have gotten too intense for them, because they took off flying towards the other side of the lake. As I watched them go, my eyes turned to the rippling water and my rage dissolved into something different. It was hurt. Derek hadhurtme. The very thing I was trying to avoid happening to me all over again after Evan
I remembered us talking about him teaching me how to fish, dancing away the night in the barn, then making out until we couldn’t stand it anymore. How could he say he never wanted any of that to happen?
