Scoffing, my mouth hung open, but I was speechless. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Yes, I knew he’d been betrayed before, but I couldn’t believe he thought I was capable of doing anything like that.
“Avery!” he almost yelled.
“It’s not what it looks like. The document was already open.”
“And that makes it okay for you to read it without my permission? Itoldyou I didn’t want anyone reading the book until it was published.”
“I didn’t read it, Ali. I was sending an email.”
“To who? Of my book?”
“No!” I yelled, feeling my irritation grow. More than anything, I was offended that he’d eventhinkI could do that. As hard as I was trying to be calm and understanding and explain the situation, a part of me wanted to just leave. I was hurt that we were even having this conversation. “How could you accuse me of that?”
“I told you what Tiffany did, and I trusted you anyway.” A quick bark of laughter escaped him as he took a step back. “I should have known I couldn’t trust you. I should have known all you wanted was the interview. You literally said you didn’t want anything personal. Why did I think you’d changed your mind? You’re just like everybody else.”
Ouch.
That physically hurt.
No longer caring if he allowed me to explain the situation or not, I smiled and bobbed my head.
Licking the corner of my mouth, I lifted my hands in surrender.
“Goodbye, Ali.”
I felt his eyes on me as I walked away, but he didn’t follow after me, and for some reason, that made me feel worse.
By the time I made it to my car, the tears had started to fall. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I groaned as I pulled it out. At the sight of Laya’s name, I wiped my face and rested my head on the steering wheel. Sure this day couldn’t get any worse, I answered the call with, “Hey, Laya.”
“Avery? How soon can you get back to Memphis? We really need to talk.”
13
Ali
After I told my parents about what happened, they came to Jasper Lane. I insisted I was good, but they knew their son. Iwasn’tgood. I was triggered and feeling like I’d fucked up. In one day, the perfect bubble I was living in with Avery had shattered, and I believed it was my fault. The more time passed, the more distance was between us, the more clarity I had. The more clarity I had, the more I realized I may have overreacted.
When I thought it over, I remembered leaving the document open. My plan was to shower and have breakfast with Avery, then get back to work. So if she did have to use my computer for some reason, the manuscript was going to be the first thing that popped up. I kept trying to convince myself that I wasn’t wrong. That she’d betrayed me . . . just like Brooke and Tiffany. The more I tried to convince my heart of that, the more it rejected that as truth.
Running ten miles didn’t clear my head. All it did was give me more time to overthink and question how things had played out. By the time I’d made it back home, Mama had fixed a lunchI didn’t have an appetite for, and Pops was waiting to talk to me in the den. I told him I’d meet him in there after I freshened up, though I really didn’t want to talk—not yet. A part of me, maybe it was my pride, didn’t want to face reality yet.
I took a long shower before dressing and meeting him in the den. As soon as I sat down, he shook his head and chuckled.
“You just couldn’t resist, could you?” he asked.
“Resist what, Pops?” I replied, over the conversation already.
“Making up a story in that big, beautiful brain of yours to push that girl away.”
“It wasn’t a story, Pops. It actually happened.”
His head shook and pointer finger wagged. “Not the way your trauma made you believe it did. I want you to tell me exactly what happened, Son.”
Scratching my eyebrow, I replayed the situation back. “I went in the kitchen and saw her looking at my laptop, at my document, and I snapped.”
“How’d you feel?”
“Hurt. Betrayed. Like I was experiencing déjà vu.”
