“Is that what we’ve been doing, or has everything been lies?” Ithrow my napkin down on the table. “You know what, I don’t care. I’m done with this. I’m done with you. You and your alter ego can go fuck yourselves. I’m out of here.”
I grab my purse, jump up, and scramble out of the restaurant as fast as humanly possible. From behind, I hear Matt tell Braden not to go after me. Thank God he stopped him. I can’t deal with any more bullshit at the moment, and I certainly can’t trust a thing he says.
Braden
“It’s not what you think,” I tell Matt as soon as she’s gone. I tried following, but he stopped me, and frankly, I don’t blame him.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is. It sounds like you’ve been playing her, making her believe you’re someone you’re not, and you got caught.”
“I wasn’t trying to play her. Everything Owen said is true. I didn’t feed her any bullshit. It was all real. I didn’t lie to her.”
He scoffs. “I’d say posing as a fake person is a lie in itself, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Fuck. I didn’t want her to find out like this.”
“You mean you didn’t want her to find out at all.”
“It was the only way I could think of to get her to talk to me. I liked her. She couldn’t stand me. But then, when she finally started talking tome, as in Braden, I didn’t know what to do about Owen.”
“A decent person would’ve dropped the charade—you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price. The best thing you can do from here is leave her alone.” Matt stands, throws twenty dollars on the table, and walks away without another word.
How did this night go downhill so fast? I knew it would be an issue when Matt announced my mom was from Florida. I should’ve confessed right then and there. What was I thinking?
With no reason to be here, I take my meal to go and book the nearest hotel for the weekend. My original plan was to ask Poppy ifshe wanted me to stay with her, but that’s out of the question after this fiasco.
Between lunch tomorrow with Jim and my flight on Sunday, I’m not sure what my next move will be. I don’t know where she lives, so I can’t knock on her door and beg for forgiveness. I’m certain she won’t answer my call or respond to a message, but I have to do something to make her understand.
I barrage her with texts, one after another, reassuring her that nothing I said was a lie, trying to explain that my intention wasn’t to deceive her. As expected, I received nothing in return. For all I know, they might not even getting through. She could have me blocked.
I’m devastated, and I have no one to blame but myself. Matt’s right, I’m paying the price for my deceitfulness. I’m just like my father. I didn’t cheat on her, but I may as well have with how badly I’ve hurt her. Finally, I give up and go to bed, knowing I can’t do anything more tonight. Tomorrow’s a new day, and I’ll start fresh.
When I wake up the next morning, though, I’m still completely fucked in the head. I have no idea where to go from here. After hitting the hotel gym for a couple of hours, I’ve still not come up with a solution, and it’s time for lunch with Jim. Hopefully, he’ll have some advice for me.
“Well, that’s the sorriest face I’ve seen in a while. Since your girl’s not with you, I’m assuming it has something to do with that. Take a seat, son. Tell me what happened,” Jim says before my butt hits the chair. He was already here and saw me approaching, looking like death warmed over.
For the next half hour, I spill everything. I’ve puked my whole life story out by the time I’m done. From childhood, to my ex-almost-fiancée, my aversion to relationships, to the shit show of a mess I’m in with Poppy—all of it.
“Braden, if anyone needs a drink right now, it would be you.” He raises his hand to signal the waiter and orders twoold-fashioneds.
“I don’t know what to do. I like this girl—a lot. She came out of nowhere, and I’m ready to tie her to me any way I can. I fucked up.”
“You sure did. That’s because you’re human, and humans fuck up. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. You just need to decide how you’re gonna fix it.”
“That might not be possible.”
“I heard somewhere they call you the Butcher. I would think if a butcher excelled at cutting something up, he could certainly put it back together. So figure out how to do that.”
“I got nothing. If you have a suggestion, I’m open to anything.”
“Have you tried knocking on her door yet?”
“I don’t have her address.”
“I know you’ve got private investigators working for you. Seems like a no-brainer to me.”
He has a point, however…
“I’m not sure how much more I should dive into her life after using Owen to find out everything I could about her. Don’t you think it would piss her off even more?”
