“Not in the way you’re thinking. It just affected the way I chose to live my life.”
“In what way?” Now, we were getting somewhere.
“When it came to work and men.”
Her eyes stared through me. They willed me to challenge her. She wanted to let this out. I could tell. I just had to push her to do it.
“This is like pulling teeth, Elizabeth. Just tell me what happened.”
“Fine.” Her tone was clipped. “My ex cheated on me with my roommate. He told me it was all my fault that he did it, and that’s the gist of it.”
My eyes narrowed in both confusion and anger. That couldn’t possibly be the whole story because it didn’t fu
cking add up.
What kind of asshole would cheat on her and tell her it was her fault?
A young one.
“How was him cheating on you your fault? I’d love to hear how he explained that one.”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, and my eyes zeroed in on it. The move momentarily stopped my brain from working and sent all my blood flowing south, but I forced myself to remain in my seat.
“He said that I was too focused on what I wanted for my future. I didn’t give him enough attention because my dreams were too big. And no guy would ever want someone like me because I wanted too much for myself.”
I couldn’t listen to another word without wanting to smash something. “What kind of insecure piece of shit doesn’t want his girlfriend to be successful?”
“That’s what I said!” Her voice became animated at this point. “But he said that guys wanted their women to take care of them and support their goals, not have goals of their own. He said that all guys thought that way, not just him. And he acted like he was doing me a favor by telling me, like he was clueing me in on some giant secret in the book of men.”
I shook my head back and forth so hard that I thought it might fall off my fucking shoulders. “I am so sorry that happened to you.” Anger pulsed through every inch of my body. I could feel it seething through my veins like blood.
Pushing out of my chair, I rose to my feet and sucked in three deep breaths before sliding into the bench seat next to her. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her against me and kissed her forehead. My heart pounded against my chest. It wasn’t because of the woman in my arms—although, that would have been enough. It was because my fucking adrenaline was pumping so hard. This guy had done a number on her, and I understood now why she had been so guarded.
What girl wouldn’t be after experiencing that?
I looked down at her and reached for her chin, tilting it up with my fingertips, before pressing my lips against hers. If I had the power to kiss away all the bullshit she had been told in her life, I wished for it to work now.
My tongue swept across her bottom lip before begging for entry into her mouth. She parted her lips, and the taste of sweet wine was on her tongue. We kissed for a few seconds more before I slowly pulled away from her and planted a soft peck on her cheek.
8.
ELIZABETH
Sweet baby Jesus. If I’d known that telling Daniel that story would get me rewarded so sweetly, I might have shared it with him the night we first met.
No, I wouldn’t have.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
I couldn’t pretend not to notice the way his chest was inflating and deflating quicker than normal and that his jaw had been clenched since he sat back down on his side of the table.
“Me? I’m fine. What about you? You’ve been living with that shit in your head for how many years?” His tone was angry as he reached for the bread that had arrived shortly after the wine.
“Eight. Are you mad at me?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “At you? Why would I be mad at you?” His teeth ripped through a piece of the bread. “I’m mad at the dickhead who said that to you, the guy who put that in your head and allowed you to believe it.”
“So, you don’t think it’s true? Guys don’t really want that?”