“Haven’t read the book. Or they pretend they haven’t, because they don’t want to hurt my feelings.”
“You want me to pretend.”
“Um. No? Honestly, it’s kind of a relief. Being able to talk about it with someone who doesn’t confuse me with Destiny.”
“No one who knows you could do that.”
“They did.” I swallowed. “Everyone in the department assumed Gray must know me better. We were together for two years.”
“You could sue him. For defamation. He damaged your reputation.”
I shook my head. “There’s just enough difference in the names—Dorothy, Destiny. And there’s that bit the publisher always puts in the front, about it all being fiction or used fictitiously. ‘Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.’ ”
“Bollocks,” Tim said.
“Anyway, the damage is done.” I winced, remembering the reviews. “All I’d get from suing would be more publicity. I just want the whole thing to go away.”
He was silent.
“I know that sounds cowardly,” I said.
“It sounds very normal. Most women are reluctant to report sexual harassment because they’re afraid it will affect their advancement at work.”
He sounded so cool. So factual. Like he didn’t care.
Or... I snuck a look at his carefully blank face. Like he was giving me space to feel my feelings without worrying about his reaction.
Gratitude loosened my chest.
“The thing is, I was complicit. That’s the part I can’t get over. I trusted him, and he dismissed me as someone unworthy of love or trust or respect. Publicly. In print. And now they’re making a movie about it.”
“He abused your trust. That’s on him, not on you.”
“No, it’s me.” My throat was suddenly tight. “That’s what I do. Yeah, Gray wrote a book that made me out to be something I wasn’t. But even before he wrote it, I made myself into somebody else to be with him. Nobody forced me to put my thesis on hold so I could cook his dinner or grade his papers.” Or have sex when he wanted it. “I made myself less when I should have made myself more.”
“We all want to meet the expectations of the people we care about,” Tim said.
“Your family?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
I waited, but apparently that was all he was going to say. “I do it with everybody,” I confided. “When I was younger, I was always trying to fit in. To make people like me.”
“Why wouldn’t they like you? You’re very likable.”
Another compliment, I thought. A good one. “I have a big butt.”
“Yes.” A near smile. “And a large heart. Quite attractive, that.”
I grinned at him. “My butt or my heart?”
“Both.”
He set down his tea and leaned forward, giving me plenty of time to pull back or move away. Giving me space. His lashes dropped, veiling his eyes.
Mine were wide open. His face blurred as I closed the distance between us and pressed my mouth to his.
His lips were slightly parted. I could taste the tea we’d been drinking, warm and sweet. One second, two seconds, three...
