Thinking about sex with Brady always made me squirm. Thinking about getting pregnant with him made my blood run cold. How was I supposed to work with him on this wedding with this hanging over my head? What if he found out?
Well, he wasn’t going to find out because there was nothing to find out. I wasn’t pregnant, and I wasn’t going to get pregnant. I was going to get my period any day now, and I would have nothing to worry about.
11
Brady
I rang the doorbell and waited on the doorstep until Victoria came out. I held out the roses to her. “These are for you.”
She sniffed them. The red matched her cheeks. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I wanted this to be our first official date. No sneaking around. No guilt.”
She flashed her exquisite smile. “Thank you. It’s very nice of you to think of me.”
“I’ve done nothing but think of you these last few weeks,” I told her. “I know we agreed to keep it casual, but I can’t stop thinking about you. This seemed like the next logical step.”
She set the roses inside her house.
I walked her to the Porsche and sat her in the passenger seat. I drove her to the restaurant and got a table in the back where we could talk. I ordered a bottle of wine and scoped out the menu. “The filet mignon is really good here. That’s what I usually get, but since this is a special occasion, I might get something different. What do you think you’d like?” She kept looking around. “Is everything all right?”
She waved her hand. “This place...It’s kind of.... you know, expensive for my taste.”
“Do you want to go somewhere else? I know a really good hamburger stand down on the corner. We could get a couple of paper bags and eat in the park. We could sit at the picnic tables with the other crack heads.”
She laughed. “No, I don’t want that. This place is really nice. I’m just not used to it. I’ve never been to a restaurant this nice. Then again, I’ve never been on a date with a guy as rich as you.”
I shrugged. “Don’t think about that. Just think about going on a date with the guy you used to sneak around with in college. I’m still that same guy.”
She winced. What did I say to set her off? “Look, Brady, I don’t want to go on a date with the guy I used to sneak around with in college. That guy really hurt my feelings. I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I thought you were the same as that guy.”
My eyes snapped open. “Really? What did I do to hurt you so badly? I always thought we were going pretty good back then. You said before I dumped you, but I never did anything of the kind.”
She fought hard to keep her voice calm. “You did so. You say we were going pretty good, so what happened? You just disappeared out of my life one day. I texted you to find out what happened, and you never even replied. What happened? Did you find a better girl?”
My stomach ached from this conversation. “You know I could never find a better girl than you.”
Her voice cracked with pent-up emotion. “You say that, but you’ve got one hell of a way of showing it. Do you know what you did to me? I actually cared about you. I actually started in my deluded state to think we might have a future together.”
“That’s what I thought, too. That’s what I always wanted.”
She bent across the table and snarled under her breath. “Don’t you dare say that. Don’t even think about saying that after the way you treated me.”
I clenched my teeth. So, this is what it came down to? She thought I dumped her and refused to return her texts? I never wanted to tell her the truth, but now I could see I had to. I bent forward, too. Our noses almost touched in the middle of the table. “You want to know what happened? Do you want to know what made me stop seeing you? My grandmother died. That’s what happened.”
She stared at me with her mouth open. I always knew she’d react like that if she found out. I couldn’t stand to see that stunned look on her face. It reminded me too much of how I felt back then. “Oh, my God.”
I sat back in my chair and tossed my wadded-up napkin on the table. “There. Now you know. Okay? It threw a massive wrench in our whole family. She was my father’s mother, and after she died, the whole family went nuts. People started fighting in court over who would inherit her fortune. My parents split up over it. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. It took everything I had just to stay in school. I almost dropped out, but I coped by cutting myself off from everyone. I couldn’t talk to anybody, especially not to you, Vic. I’m really sorry, but I did what I had to do to survive it. It cost me everything I had, but it got me where I am today, and I won’t apologize for that.”
She swallowed hard. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “I am so sorry. I never knew, but I wish now I had known. I wish I could have helped you somehow instead of hating you all these years.”
I stared down at my plate. I had to keep myself together right now. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I really wish I could have reached out to you back then. Losing you hurt a lot worse than losing my grandmother, but I couldn’t do anything else. I was young and stupid. I should never have let you go, but I didn’t know then what I know now. I did it, and it cost me seven years I could have spent with you. That’s the worst part of the whole thing. That was my punishment for handling it the wrong way.”
She peered up at me. She opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it again. “I understand now why you stopped talking to me. It might not have been the best way to handle it, but it helps to know you didn’t turn your back on me. That’s what upset me most.”
My head shot up. “I Would never turn my back on you, again Vic. Never!”
Her hand inched across the table. “Do you mean that?”