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Yup. I knew it. “How can I possibly guess, Yiayia?”
“You remember your Greek school teacher in grade one?”
I tried but couldn’t recall. “No.”
“Hm, maybe was Amber’s teacher. Georgia Pappadopolous. I’m sure you remember. She move to Greece after only one year here. She die last week.”
“She was a friend of yours, Yiayia?”
“No, but she younger than me. Makes me happy.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Happy?”
“Of course,” she replied. “I live good life, long life. A good life with a good man, a good life with my good girls. I gonna go call Amber, see if she remember Georgia.”
At Amber’s, I admitted I had not yet started The Naughty Pine. Minty and Amber wrote the review while I listened in. The more they talked, the more I wanted to read it. I decided I’d read it when Vander and I took the boys to Blue Mountain.
“So,” Minty sat back with a full glass of wine. “Tell me about hunkalicious.”
I laughed. “What do you want to know?”
Amber snickered. “She wants to know everything.”
Minty took a sip of her wine and smiled. “She’s not wrong.”
“You want the good or the bad first?”
“Mm, the bad,” Minty said.
“He’s pushy. He kind of just steamrolls over me at times, like how he did with the franchising. He’s pushing for Jace and me to move in with him, he pushed me to meet his son, George, as well. When he wants something, he pushes. He can be sarcastic and snarky. Sometimes he’s impatient.”
“Has he pushed for anything you didn’t want?” Amber asked.
“No. No, he hasn’t.”
“And the good?” Minty asked.
“He’s fun, makes me laugh, holds me when I get scared, sat through a panic attack and carried on like nothing unusual happened. He’s affectionate and attentive. Tells me how much he loves me. Took the heat when I let him have it about our past. Apologized for leaving. Both times. Was honest about his past.” I shuddered.
“Let that shit go, Ruby,” Minty admonished firmly. “Everybody has a past. Everybody makes mistakes. If he committed himself to you and then took other women, okay, you have the right to hold it against him.”
“It makes me feel sick. He moved on, I didn’t.”
“Whose choice was that?” Minty asked softly. “You could have gone to him as well.”
I felt betrayed. “You were there, Minty,” I snapped. “You saw how I was.”
“I did.” She nodded slowly. “I also saw the decisions you made. Not all of them were forced.”
I took in a deep breath, ready to argue, but she continued.
“I’m not trying to challenge you.” She stopped then laughed her tinkling laugh. “Well, I guess I am trying to challenge you a bit. You’re not the victim. You made just as many mistakes, just as many bad decisions back then, and this is good.”
I snorted. Amber remained silent but looked like she’d been punched. Finally, she asked, “How is that good?”
Minty answered, “Because you can make different decisions this time around.”
I turned my attention back to Amber. “You okay, Amber?”
