"Yep," she tells him. I can hear the happiness in her voice and it makes me smile.
"With Winters?"
"Mhmm. Heismy boyfriend," she teases.
"Yeah, but he's not the one for you and we both know it," Linc announces, surprising me.
I know eavesdropping is a bad thing for many reasons, but I can't walk away. Not yet.
"Look, he doesn't want me, Linc. He has made that more than clear over the last few years. I'm not going to follow him around like a lost puppy anymore. I did that for the first year and a half after he told me he wasn't the one for me. I learned my lesson the hard way," she tells him, her breath hitching.
"What do you mean by that?" Linc questions.
Yeah. Whatdoesshe mean by that?
She laughs mirthlessly. "I'd rather not relive that, okay?"
"Maybe you misunderstood the situation?"
She laughs again—this one cold and bitter. "No. There was no misunderstanding."
"But—"
"No! Okay? There was no misunderstanding! I'd decided to stop pining after him and the same day I got a note asking me to meet him at the shack," she tells him.
I never sent her a note like that. I'd never take Tera to the shack. The shack is where we take our chicks to fuck. It's not somewhere I'd take someone like Tera.
"He'd never do that. He would never take you to that place."
"Gee, thanks, Linc. Way to make a girl feel good."
"I don't mean it like that, T. I just mean—he wouldn't take you to a place like that. You know what goes on there."
"Oh, yeah. I know. And how I found out was a real fun time for me, let me tell you."
"What happened, T?"
I hear her blow out a breath and plop on her bed. I can see it in my mind—including the hurt and disappointment on her face. Christ. If she says what I think she's going to say…
"I got that note, you know? And I thought, finally. He's going to take another of my firsts. I wanted him to for so long. I thought he should be the one I'd give all my firsts to."
"Go on."
She clears her throat and sniffles. "Well, I went to the shack and I certainly did get another first. I got my first shock. I got my first look at Xander with another girl. I got my first live porn show. I got plenty of firsts, but the one that will always stand out the most is it was the first time my heart shattered. I mean, I knew he'd been screwing around with girls. I didn't like it, but I pretended it wasn't happening, you know? Ignorance is bliss and all that. And then I saw him. It would have been bad enough that he was with another girl but, God, Linc, he was withGretchen."
"No," Linc denies.
Fuck. How did she know? That day, she just showed up—Gretchen. I didn't invite her. No one did. That was the day I asked the guys to have the place to myself. It was the day Carter Winters asked Tera out on a date and she said yes. It was the first time I turned to alcohol and used it as a crutch. It didn't work.
"Oh-ho, yes. She was there. Her clothes were off and so was his shirt. There was no mistaking where that was heading. They didn't see me and they didn't hear me—thankfully. I just walked away. That was the day I walked away because that was the day Xander Mackenzie betrayed me in a way I never thought he would," she confesses with a sob.
No. No, no, no! Anger, fear, and desperation fill me. She doesn't understand. I was drunk. And, if I'm honest, that was the first time I took drugs.
"He wouldn't do that, T. Not willingly," Linc defends.
"I know what I saw, Linc. He wasn't exactly fighting her off, what with him sucking on her tits and his hand between her legs," Tera sneers.
"I can't believe he'd do that."
