Chapter 16
Dylan
“You haveto let her hit rock bottom.” That’s the advice Max offered me. He took a long pull from his beer and set it back down on the table, allowing me time for the statement to sinkin.
"Rock bottom," I repeatedslowly.
I was on my third whiskey, and I was feeling the effects of it. We'd already talked for an hour, only stopping so he could make a quickcall.
“Yeah, rock bottom. You have to show her some tough love, Dylan. You can’t give her any support that will allow her to continue doing the shit she wasdoing.”
I played with dark amber liquid in my glass, tilting it back and forth in myhands.
“Tough fucking love,” hesaid.
“What ifI’mat rock bottom? Me and the kids, sitting right there.” I pointed to the table and tapped my finger. “On the bottom. With therocks.”
Max tilted his head forward in understanding as the waitress slid another whiskey in front ofme.
"It's painful. I get it. You just have to remember, Sheri's not choosing drugs over you and the kids. It's not personal." He shook his head and took another sip of beer. “If she had the ability todecidenot to use drugs, she wouldn't be anaddict."
"I want to think I'm a good man, Max. I promised Sheri in sickness and in health, you know? Good times. Bad times." I scrubbed my hands over my face, and the room spun a little faster. “But I was thinking about it today. When the fuck were the good times? My kids, they fucking deserve better. Maybe I don't. But that doesn't stop me from wanting better.More."
Max studied my face for a minute. I knew he was choosing his words wisely. I had weak knees, but I was still coherent.Mostly.
“Look, Dylan, choosing to stay in the relationship, that’s up to you. That’s a personal decision you and only you can make. But I agree, you need to put those kids and yourselffirst.”
"It's just. Something's differentnow."
I thought about my daughter in the kitchen, laughing, a princess tiara sitting crooked on her freshly braided hair. Ben cooing...forget the cooing, the kid has been sleeping almost through the entire night for the past fewdays.
It was likemagic.
“What’s different this time?” heprompted.
I gulped back the entire glass of whiskey. I needed to feel the burn. I didn’t want to voice the words out loud. It was bad enough I was thinking them, but to put them out in the open would make them tooreal.
He shrugged, waiting. “Well?”
“For the last few days, I got to see what a real family could look like. And Sheri, she wasn’t a part of it.” There. I said it.And now I wassmiling.
“Who was?” he asked, folding his arms across hischest.
I shook my head. I wasn’t implicating myself any further. Damn, the room was spinning faster now. I laughed for noreason.
“Nope. Noway.”
I straightened up and tried to put a serious expression on my face. But I couldn't feel it, and I knew I must have been smiling like a fool, because I was thinking about Callie and silly stories she made up for bedtime. And the way she looked in just atowel.
“Okay. Stop. Juststop.”
“Stop what?” he said, narrowing his eyes atme.
“I need to flush every thought that is Callie out of my system. Okay? I can’t fix my wife and my miserable, sexless marriage—” I held a hand up, completely losing my point. “Sexless. Do you know I haven’t had sex since probably Ben wassperm?”
His eyes widened. “That’s notgood.”
"No, it's not. Because I have been one hundred percent faithful, and I think my dick hates me." I needed to focus on what my point was. "It doesn't matter. But the part that does is the part about how I need not to think of how I want to be somewhere else when I need to be wherever I need to be. Youunderstand?"
