I shook my head. “I still can’t believe he’s been talking to Carmen about my business. If he had just told me I might not have cared, but to lie about it…”
“It’s what he does,” Brad said confidently. “He breaks up with women, but keeps them around as backup options. Remember Katie Offerman? He broke up with her in high school, then got back together with her for a couple of days before he moved to Portland. He probably considered you the same thing: a girl who had a crush on him five years ago, who he could toy around with and come back to whenever he got bored. And that’s probably why he’s still in touch with Carmen.”
Now that I heard it out loud, it rang true in my ears. Hunter had never been able to settle down when he was younger. He had gotten engaged, but then that failed too. He stayed with women just long enough before finding the next girl to chase.
Why did I think I was any different?
Brad canceled his drink plans with the guys from work and stayed home with me. We ordered pizza and had a few beers while watching the Cleveland game. I wanted to text Lizzy about everything, but I knew she was working a shift at the brewery and would be busy.
My phone rang during the eighth inning. I froze when I saw who was calling.
“Should I answer it?” I asked. My leg was shaking.
Brad’s voice softened. “Do youwantto answer it right now? Or do you want to give it some more time to figure out your emotions before talking to him?”
My brother was right, so I declined the call. A minute later I got the notification that I had a voicemail. It was only thirty seconds long, and I decided not to listen to it tonight. I knew what it would say, anyway: Hunter would insist he was sorry, and that we should talk about it. But I wasn’t ready to talk. Not yet.
I texted Lizzy the next morning to let her know everything had blown up. Half an hour later, she knocked on my door. She was wearing a bike helmet, and had an old touring bike held in front of her.
“You didn’t have to come here!” I said when I saw her.
She rolled the bike inside and leaned it against the wall. “I was out for a ride anyway, and decided to swing by here. I’m trying to get that toned Erica Porter ass before bathing suit season is over. Oh, honey. Are you crying? Come here. I’m so sorry.”
I made us some coffee and we went into the living room to talk about everything. I caught her up on all the drama from last night, including what Hunter had said about investing in my business, and how he had been talking to Carmen.
“I’m sure he meant well,” Lizzy said. “Yeah, it’s weird that he contacted his ex to ask for help with the business of thenewgirl he was seeing, but still. His heart was in the right place.”
“Then why did he lie? I asked him point-blank the other day if he had spoken to her recently, and he lied. The only reason he would lie is because he still has feelings for her.”
Lizzy sipped her coffee and gave me a patient look. “I can think of lots of reasons people lie. Like lying to a brother because you don’t want him to be hurt.”
“I lied to protect Brad,” I argued. “Hunter lied to protecthimself. It’s different.”
“Is it? Ask yourself: how would you have reacted if he told you up front about getting marketing advice from Carmen? Would it have made you confident about the marketing plan, or would you have been suspicious about her advice from the beginning?”
I didn’t want to listen to Lizzy. Not because she was wrong, but because she was certainly right. If Hunter had told me the truth from the beginning, I wouldn’t have trusted the marketing plans. And so far, based on a few days of Facebook ads, her marketing plan seemed legit. We didn’t have any sales yet, but the ads were driving traffic to my website and I was getting more and more inquiries every day.
Brad came downstairs wearing a dress shirt and necktie. His laptop was open in one hand.
“Fancy schmancy,” Lizzy said.
“Are you going into the office?” I asked. “I thought you were working from home most days.”
“My boss wants my help on a project. It might lead to more responsibilities.” Brad smiled hopefully, but then raised the open laptop. “Have you seen these yet?”
“Seen what?”
He set the laptop down on the coffee table. “Hunter uploaded a bunch of videos last night.”
“The throwback ones?” I asked. “Or the ones about the Mustang?” In either case, I felt a pang of annoyance about it. Even though everything had blown up, Hunter wanted to make sure he published his content to his channel. It made me feel like I was the secondary reason for him coming back to Columbus, and the throwback videos reallywerethe main reason all along.
But Brad shook his head, and there was a strange tone in his voice when he spoke. “These videos are… different. They’re nothing like anything else he’s ever posted.”
“Different how?” I asked.
He maximized one of the videos. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. You need to see them for yourself.”
He tapped the laptop to start the first video.