“It means, I thought you were such a smart girl, but when it came to my two nephews, you were stupid. You still are.”
“Listen, I’ve already apologized for how everything went down between Matt and I. You have no idea how sorry I am that I slept with Michael.”
She shakes her head. “That’s where the problem is. Why are you sorry you slept with him?”
She’s being really confusing right now.
“I-I’m not sure.”
Mel smirks. “I keep hoping you’ll realize this all by yourself, or at the very least admit it to yourself. But it seems I’m going to have to do that for you.”
I say nothing. I have nothing to say, honestly.
“I watched all of you kids grow up, Christine. Very closely, might I add. I saw everything you were all blind to. And I always knew you would end up with one of my boys eventually. Imagine my surprise, however, when you ended up picking the wrong one.”
I stare at her. “What?” I ask when I finally find my voice.
She sighs and looks into the night. “When I heard you and Matthew had started dating, I was so surprised because I knew Michael had feelings for you. He’s always had feelings for you.”
I shake my head. “That makes no sense, Aunt Mel.”
She smiles. It’s a warm, reproachful smile. “Michael was fourteen when he first told me how pretty he thought you were. After that, he would randomly come up to me and tell me about things you did. Christine punched a bully at school today. Christine said the teacher’s hair looked like a butt. He was always watching you, and he was always intrigued. I didn’t say anything back then and held out hope that he would eventually realize his feelings.”
She looks at me, but I’m too shocked to do or say anything but stare at her. I still can’t believe my ears.
Mel continues talking. “But then he went to high school and I guess he matured and found his own friends. He was older than you and Matt, after all. I thought maybe he had gotten over you. He didn’t really talk to me anymore, so I had no idea. But I would catch him staring at you or doing sweet things to impress you, and I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“Then I started dating Matt,” I say softly.
“Then you started dating Matt,” Mel agrees. “Honestly, I was so shocked because I had no inkling beforehand that the two of you even had feelings for each other. You seemed like such good friends. I said nothing, though. I could only watch as Michael’s heart was broken. He didn’t let anyone see his pain, but I could tell he was beyond hurt. He likes to pretend he’s so much stronger than all of us, but the truth is, he’s just better at hiding his pain.”
I remember his father’s funeral. He refused to even cry at all, until I managed to coerce him into it. Michael never lets anyone in. He never lets anyone see the cracks.
“That’s why you hated me,” I finally understand. If she thought I broke her nephew’s heart and chose his brother instead, her actions so far are somewhat justified. Especially taking into account what I did recently with Noah.
“I never hated you, Christine. I was just scared that you would wedge those two brothers apart. I felt like I was watching a train that would eventually crash. Back then, I found myself hoping that you wouldn’t cause them to turn against each other. Because as far as I could tell, Matt’s feelings for you were genuine, but Michael’s feelings just ran deeper. They’ve always run deeper.”
“Damn,” I whisper. “I-I didn’t know.”
Mel says nothing as she watches me come to terms with what she has just said.
“You can’t be sure,” I point out.
She looks at me sharply. “What?”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Mel, but I don’t know whether I’m supposed to believe all this. Michael had feelings for me and I had no idea. It just seems so…” I trail off.
“I understand. It’s a lot to process. I’m telling you now because I think you should know. I can’t claim to guess how Michael feels right now; I just thought I should inform you about how he felt in the past so you would stop acting so clueless.”
“I understand,” I say quietly.
She nods before moving to walk away. Then she turns around. “Christine, keep in mind that this isn’t my permission for you to continue playing with Michael’s heart. The fact that you didn’t realize his true intentions back then is more than enough reason to be glad that you are apart right now. You don’t deserve him,” she spits out, leaving me standing there alone.
She’s right. I never claimed to deserve Michael Crane. And although she may think that her story today has answered some of the questions I had, the opposite happened. Now I have so many more of them.
It’s hard to talk to Michael after Mel leaves. I return to the party, but he’s deep in conversation with some other people. I’m eventually able to catch his attention and he walks over to meet me.
“Hey, you okay? You look a little tired,” he says, his eyes studying me.