“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
I follow after her. “I don’t judge you, Jens. You’re not a disappointment to me.”
She whirls around, thrusting her index finger in my face. “Don’t lie, Rhett. It’s not a good look for you.”
And with that, she turns, opens the door, and leaves.
I show up early to the café, and of course my brother is nowhere to be seen. The waitress seats me at a booth in the very back of the restaurant, and she asks how my day is going and if I’d like something to drink.
I can’t tell her truth, that so far my day has been total shit. First, my somewhat girlfriend walks out on me after a stupid fight, and now I have to meet my douchebag older brother for lunch so he can fill me in on all the lurid details about his affair with our bitchy stepmom.
Yeah. It’s a bullshit day. But I smile at her and tell her that so far, my day is going great, and could I get a glass of iced tea, please?
She leaves me with a menu and I check my phone, almost hoping Park won’t show up. But I couldn’t be that lucky, because yep, there he is. I watch him as he enters the café, smiling broadly at our waitress, examining her up and down as he follows her to the table.
“How’s it going?” Park asks once he’s seated and the server has left.
I keep my gaze focused on the menu, unsure of what to say to him yet.
“You going to be pissed at me forever?”
I glance up to find Park watching me, his eyes filled with amusement. The asshole. There’s nothing about this situation that I find even remotely funny. He flips open his menu, though he’s not looking at it. “I should be,” I tell him. “What you’re doing is fucked up.”
Sighing, he closes the menu and rests his clasped hands on top of it. “He cheats on her too, you know.”
“So that makes it okay?” I shake my head in disbelief. “That’s some fucked up logic you’ve got there.”
“You’re right. But let me explain everything first before you’re so quick to judge,” Park throws back at me.
Second time I’ve been called out for being too judgmental today. I never thought I was, but maybe I am. Maybe I’m a complete asshole, and worse? I don’t even realize it.
“Okay. Explain,” I tell him, leaning back against the booth seat.
The server arrives with our drinks and we both order sandwiches, sending her on her way quickly. I’m impatient and it’s like he is too. I know I shouldn’t want to hear how this whole mess started, but, I’m curious. I want to understand how he could do something so messed up.
“It started about five years ago—”
I interrupt him. “Five years? You’ve been having sex with Diane for five years?”
“Shhh.” He glances around to make sure no one is paying attention. “Off and on, yeah. I have.”
“Holy shit.” I rub my hand over my face, my mind having a difficult time wrapping itself around this revelation. “That’s insane.”
“If you’d stop interrupting me, I could tell you more,” he says irritably.
“Fine, sorry,” I mutter.
“She’s been pretty flirtatious with us ever since we graduated high school. Did you ever notice that?”
The summer after my senior year I was swimming in the pool alone at night, and when I came out she touched my shoulder and told me I’d grown up extra
big and strong, her tone appreciative, her eyes full of interest.
It totally skeeved me out, and I did my best to banish that memory from my brain.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“Right, well, I started to play along with it after a while. She flirted, I flirted back. She’d touch me, I would touch her back. One night we stay up late, just the two of us in the family room, watching a movie. By then I was almost done with college, and I was home for spring break, wanting to spend time with you guys. But you went out with your friends, and Addie was in bed because it was a school night, and Dad was on a business trip.” He pauses, takes a sip of his beer, and all I can do is watch him.