“I didn’t think you would,” I replied hesitantly.
He shook his head. “No. Fuck no with that uncertain tone, Willow. I am not that man. You’re in my bed, I’m in yours, ours are the only beds and bodies that are gonna be in this relationship. You got my vow on that. I will never step out on you. Not fuckin’ ever.”
Although what he was saying, and how passionately he was saying it, made me want to do cartwheels, I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this, and that feeling wasn’t (completely) about what could be considered—but as crazy as it seemed, I was thinking it wasn’t—his irrational fury.
“And I wanna know who pulled this shit.” He lifted his phone up again.
“Gabe, it was thirteen years ago.”
“Do you think a boy who would do this won’t become a man who would do worse?”
No.
I thought there were way too many men who never stopped acting like boys.
I pulled a Raye and approached the beast.
Getting close, I put my hand on his chest and said, “I think you need to take a breath and realize that’s over. I’m beyond it. It wasn’t fun to deal with, but Mom took my back, and it was dealt with.”
“And, babe, I think you gotta clue in to who you’re with and the fact that man is not gonna let anyone fuck you over, past, present or future,” he returned, and my heart squeezed again, this time happily (if worriedly). “Now, I’m askin’ you to think. Is this fuck and that cheater and your dad and Kevin all there is?”
Since this obviously meant a lot to him, I thought about it, then shared, “Well, there’s also Sheldon, who’s my ex-bestest bestie, Jen’s boyfriend, and he got her into drugs, and she and I had it out about what a bad influence he was on her, with me telling her she should ditch him. She didn’t ditch him. And now she isn’t my bestest bestie anymore, but she is a meth-head, and I haven’t seen her in years. But that didn’t happen to me. Though, I really loved her, and I still miss her.”
“That it?” he demanded.
I thought about it harder.
Coming up with nothing, I nodded.
Once again, he held up his phone. “There’s a lot of this crap still up, babe, who started it?”
This didn’t give me good vibes either.
“What are you gonna do?” I asked.
“I’m gonna pay him a visit.”
I blinked and stepped back, dropping my hand. “You’re what?”
“I’m gonna look into him. And if he hasn’t cleaned up his fuckin’ act, I’m gonna find him. I’m then gonna tell him who I am. I’m gonna remind him internet shit never dies. And I’m gonna share with him that if he doesn’t get his shit straight, he’s gonna learn what it feels like to carry weight someone else piled on him that he can never release. But his is gonna be so heavy, it might fuckin’ crush him.”
Oh yeah.
I was getting a very bad feeling about this.
“And I think we might want to talk about why you’d have an urge to do that,” I said quietly. “Because, again, Gabe, it’s over. And I’m fine.”
“You’d given up on men four days ago.”
Hmm.
Well, there was that.
I tried to tease, smiling and saying, “Seems like someone talked me out of that.”
Gabe wasn’t in the mood for teasing.
“Yeah, but you haven’t clued into the man you’re with,” he ground out.
