Chapter Two
The Meeting
Two Years Ago
Iglanced atthe clock on the wall and bit back a sigh. Shit, I was going to be late. I held my cell phone against my ear and listened to my sister sob.
Fuck it. I would be late. My sister was more important, even if the lying, cheating sack of shit she was crying over wasn’t worth the effort. This wasn’t about him. It was about the fact that her heart was broken—a heart she’d shared in good faith.
“I’m so sorry, Tessa,” I murmured, hoping that the low, soothing tone of my voice would calm her.
Sure enough, her huge sobs weakened gradually to small hiccups. “He’s been s-s-s-seeing her for almost a year. That’s only three months less than we’ve been together!” she cried. “We’d bah-bah-barely started dating before he met her.”
“That’s horrible,” I replied. There was nothing else to say. It was horrible. Well, there was plenty to say, but I didn’t think that my sister would appreciate the rant that was working its way up from my gut to my mouth. While I might have attended law school, most of the words I wanted to use would have made my former professors’ and colleagues’ ears bleed. I could spit it all out later while I practiced yoga at home. It might not be what most yoga instructors would prefer, but I found the process extremely satisfying. I would breathe deeply as I moved through the poses and cuss out all the people who’d pissed me off during the day. I got some exercise and it allowed me to rid myself of any nasty thoughts that had accumulated in my brain.
“I d-d-don’t know what I’m going to do,” she stuttered.
“Are you going to forgive him?” I asked blandly. God, I hoped not because I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain a facade of civility if she brought him home for Christmas this year.
“Maybe someday,” she muttered and my heart sank.
Goddammit, I didn’t want to have to stare at his smirking face across my father’s dinner table and hold my tongue.
“But it’s over anyway,” she continued, banishing the painful images from my mind before they could fully form.
“Thank God,” I breathed.
“What was that?” Tessa sniffed.
“Nothing. I’m just glad you’ve already made the hardest decision,” I evaded.
She laughed harshly. “More like he made it for me. He broke up with m-m-me!”
“Fucker,” I mumbled.
This time she heard me but when she laughed again, there was underlying humor in it. “Oh, I love you, Tanya,” she said breathlessly. “Thank you for listening to me cry over him even though I know you want to call him every nasty name you can think of.”
What could I say? Tessa might be five years younger than me, but she knew me well. Those extra five years of experience were also the reason I didn’t share my philosophy about love with her. She wouldn’t listen anyway.
“I love you too, Tess. I hate that someone hurt you and I can’t make them pay.”
She laughed again, the last of the uncontrollable quiver leaving her voice. “You’d be disbarred,” she teased.
“It would be worth it,” I replied quickly.
I could practically hear her shaking her head over my words, but what she didn’t understand was that she was one of the only people in this world I loved openly and unconditionally. Whenever someone hurt her, I had to rein in the urge to burn their house down with them inside it. Figuratively speaking, of course. A competent attorney would never make threats like that verbally.
“Oh, God. I just realized it’s only three in the afternoon. You’re at work, aren’t you?” Tessa asked.
“Yes, but…”
“I know you probably have back-to-back appointments. I’ll let you go.”
“It’s okay, Tessa, I—”
“I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Before I could reply, she continued, “Love you, Tata. Bye.” Then she hung up.
I laid my phone on the desk and stared at my computer monitor for a moment, collecting my thoughts. Listening to Tessa cry over some jerk who slept around on her made me glad I didn’t believe in love.
