“No time like the present, I always say.”
I’m not you, I wanted to say, but before I could get my frazzled brain to fire all its synapses and formulate a sentence, Frisco unlocked my phone—the perils of having a best friend who knows all your passwords—scrolled through my contacts, and hit Nate’s number.
“Fuck, Frisco.” I grabbed the phone. It was still ringing, so I was safe. About to hit the End button, I heard Nate’s voice.
“Why are you calling, Presley?”
“I was hoping maybe after you had some time to think, you’d want to talk.”
“Why? Did you come up with another lie or figure out a way to blame someone else for what you did?”
Frisco, who was standing at my shoulder, huffed out a breath. My face burned with humiliation. “I just thought after everything we said to each other that night before…maybe after a little time passed, you’d want to try and work it out.”
“I told you all my secrets, things I’ve never told anyone. Things I’ve only begun to come to grips with. Youknew. Goddamn it, Presley, youknewhow I felt about cheating. The one thing I value more than anything from a person is the truth. Especially when it comes to relationships.”
Frisco paced around me, and I grew dizzy from his back and forth. I turned away from him and lowered my voice.
“I tried to tell you before…everything. But when you told me you loved me, everything else faded away. I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
“You didn’t? You didn’t tell me you had an affair with a married man who had a child, and we’ve been together a few months. Sounds to me like it was a pretty deliberate omission of facts, which is nothing more than a lie.”
Frustrated, I pushed my fingers through my hair. “Yes. I mean, no. I didn’t say anything because after meeting you, I finally understood what I’d had with Jared didn’t come close to what we shared.”
“So you say. I’m sorry.”
And I held a dead phone. I stood swaying in the middle of my living room, then threw the phone to the love seat I’d vacated.
“What happened?”
“He’s not interested. He said I deliberately deceived him.”
“He’s pretty fucking judgmental, isn’t he?”
“I hurt him. He’s angry.” I flopped on my couch. “I’m such a fool. I fucked up the best thing in my life because of someone who never really gave a damn. I could’ve been anyone willing, couldn’t I?”
From the pitying expression on Frisco’s face, I already had my answer.
“Look,” I said. “You don’t need to hang around here. I’ll be all right.” I mustered a smile. “At least I don’t really need that support group anymore. The one decent thing to come from this breakup with Nate is that I finally faced the truth about Jared.”
“Better late than never,” Frisco said darkly. He picked up his scarf and wound the length of cashmere around his neck. “And I don’t think you should give up. It’s good to get out of the house and talk to people. I’ve got to run, but I’ll see you later. How about I bring some dinner and we cuddle and watch movies?”
“I doubt I’ll be hungry, but I’ll take the company and the cuddles.”
“Bye, babe.” He kissed my cheek and left, and when I closed the door, I wondered what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life.
Chapter Twenty-Two
That phone call from Press threw me off for the rest of the day. I’d done as best as I could to put the debacle of my life on the back burner in an attempt to prove to Ethan that the breakup with Presley didn’t have as much of an impact as he’d claimed. And I thought I’d managed to fool him these past few weeks. I attended a few seminars, went to a meeting with SEC auditors, and met with new clients. I even asked a few pertinent questions during a phone conference.
I almost believed it myself.
I would’ve made it too, if Presley hadn’t called. He ripped me apart and tied me up in knots again. I wanted to understand but couldn’t see through the red haze of my anger. It was three years ago, and I was in that hospital room with my mother and Ethan, listening to the police tell us my father had been brought in by his wife. Seeing Jillian in her nightgown with a coat belted around her waist hit me like a truck smashing through my frozen body. I was destroyed, shattered to pieces. My father lay dead, and one of the closest people in my life, someone I’d loved and trusted, had not only lied to me, but betrayed my family.
An hour after Presley’s call found me staring at the same worksheet. My mind hadn’t absorbed a single word or number, and I threw down my pen. Maybe it was time to go home, find a bottle of vodka, and play house with it. Or I could go to a club later and find someone…but the thought of kissing anyone else but Presley made my stomach heave.
Vodka it was.
I powered down my computer, when my phone rang at the same time loud voices sounded right outside my office. I hit the Speaker button.
