“He’s going to deal with her and then look for work abroad with an international medical group,” Madeline explains.
“Isn’t there something that can be done to stop her from releasing the video?” I ask, still unclear as to what I can do here.
“There’s the threat of being arrested for releasing it. I don’t know what the exact charges would be, but she knows that and doesn’t seem to care. It’s all about her. According to Oliver, it always was about her. She once actually called all his friends and told them that his Super Bowl party had been canceled because she didn’t want him spending time with them. Do you believe that?” Theo asks.
To my mind, that sounds like a woman skirting the boundaries of a personality disorder, which can often be tricky to be around.
“The point is,” Madeline starts, “Oliver loves you and right now he doesn’t have anyone. I mean, Theo and I of course support him, but he’s burning all the bridges behind him.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do about it,” I say.
Theo stands and comes to stand with Madeline and me. “It brings me back to my question. Do you love Oliver?”
I look down because I’m afraid of my answer. If I say no, I’m a liar, but if I say yes, they’ll want me to do something, and I don’t know how I can risk my heart again.
“The truth of the matter is, Charlotte; I don’t want you to come spend Christmas with me and Madeline at her family’s house-”
“Theo!” Madeline snaps.
"What I would rather you do is go spend Christmas with him. It’s only a couple of days away. This is where he'll be.” Theo hands me a slip of paper with an address in Malibu. “Maybe you don’t take him back. But you look like a woman who would like to give him a piece of her mind, and I know that he would like the opportunity to explain his actions. And probably grovel and beg,” Theo ends with a slight smile.
I just nod because I can’t answer. Not now.
“We’ll let ourselves out,” Madeline says.
I turn to look at the large, fluffy flakes falling from the sky. I want to believe everything they said. I want to be brave enough to go see him. But in the end, I crumple up the paper and toss it in the trash by my desk.