“Good luck with that one.”
“I’m going in, you coming?”
“In a minute, I need a little time to think.” I open another beer and lean back on a deck chair.
“Reed, you didn’t know. Luke didn’t tell us for you to beat yourself up.”
“Well, I can’t help but feel regret.”
“Man—”
“No, Jack, I need a little time to let this sink in.” He looks like he wants to say something but I beat him to it. “You know how many woman I’ve been with over the years? Too many to count.”
“That was before.”
“You wanna know how many men Ari’s been with? Me; only me. I was fucking my way to forgetting her while she sat around carrying my child. Then when he was born, she did the best she could. She dated a few guys, but the assholes couldn’t take coming in second. So she put her personal life on hold. That’s not all, knowing what I do now, I can’t get the image of a broken Ari out of my head. It’s fucking with me. So yeah, I need a few minutes to think.”
“I’m here if you need me.” He pats my shoulder and goes inside.
It’s almost completely dark with the exception of the moonlight illuminating over the ocean and a small lamp in the living room. I sit for a few minutes trying to make sense of everything that has happened. Even though I can’t see, I know she’s there.
“What do you want, Cara?
My sister steps out of the shadows and stops a few feet away. “Can we talk?”
“Nope.”
“Please, Reed, you have to let me explain.”
“Thought you did that last night?”
“I was upset last night and you made me talk in front of all those people. I got flustered. If you’ll just listen, you’ll understand.”
“Let me summarize what I heard last night and you tell me what needs explaining. A spoiled, rotten bitch manipulated you into playing the part of my girlfriend to breakup with the woman I was dating. Instead of talking to me, you believed a bunch of lies and hurt a lot of people in the process. I sat around miserable and you watched me suffer so you could join the popular sorority when you transferred. Then you let me go on a dark and dangerous path of drinking and partying right before the biggest event in my life because I was trying to outrun the pain. Does that about sum it up?”
“You make it sound so sleazy. I really thought I was doing the right thing. Alex—”
“Don’t—don’t mention that cunt’s name to me. And the reason it sounds sleazy is because it was.”
“I heard what you said to Jack. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I was waiting for you to be alone.”
“So?”
“Mom told me his name is Davis.”
“So?”
“So is there any way she was trying to trap you by getting pregnant all those years ago? Could Alex be telling the truth?!”
“Are you kidding me? No. Fucking. Way. Ari found out she was pregnant the day you approached her. The way I figure it, it was a coincidence. But I realized last night Alex was the one who set me up on my side. Somehow, she got into my gym bag, planted the ‘Dear John’ letter, and turned off my phone. I can only guess she sent the text to Ari to meet her at the diner that day. It all seems so stupid now that I didn’t find Ari and make her talk to me.
“Anyways, if anything, I would have loved for her to be pregnant. It would have made me ecstatic. Her carrying my baby, I loved her that much.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about him? About her? About any of this going on?”
“Maybe because I was trying to be sensitive to the fact you lost your baby and I wanted to give you time to heal and come to terms with it.”
“So I made a mistake. Can’t you forgive me?”
“A mistake? You call what you did a mistake? I think it goes a bit beyond.”
“You forgave Jack, why are you making me wallow?”
“Are you fucking insane, Cara? I hardly think you are wallowing when you keep pleading your case and insulting Ari in the process. As for Jack, I wouldn’t say I’ve totally forgiven him. His lack of judgment put a gaping hole in our friendship, but he didn’t deceive me on purpose to go Greek!”
“You—”
“NO! Stop talking, just shut up. I can’t deal with your bullshit right now. You asked me if we could talk and I said no, but you’re still here so let me lay it on the line for you. You had your chance to walk away, but now you will listen to what I have to say.”
I chug the rest of my beer and reach for another one. Then swallow half it in one tug.