“I know you’re a pain in the ass, but I never thought you were a full-fledged asshole,” East said, walking up to the rec center with Dex. They were set to teach survival training soon. East was doing medic and CPR training, and all Dex could think about was the click of the restaurant door he’d walked out of last night.
“What are you talking about?” Dex asked.
“I’m talking about your woman. I heard her basically kick her parents out of the restaurant last night, then call you a million times.”
“I’m not taking calls right now,” Dex said.
“Yeah, which makes you either an asshole or a pissy twelve-year-old that doesn’t know how to handle your shit.”
“I’m handling my shit just fine,” he said. “This isn’t your business.”
“Maybe not, but someone needs to tell you when you’re being stupid. Which is what you’re being. That woman loves you. Yeah, she made a mistake. But guess what? People mess up. Did you get a look at her parents? Shit, I froze with terror staring down her dad. Can you imagine growing up with that?”
No, Dex couldn’t. Because their lives were different. Which was something that’d grown increasingly clear over the last several weeks. And it wasn’t just her parents. Michelle had said he was nothing. Yeah, she’d left messages trying to explain that’s not what she’d meant, but it still fucking sucked. She’d almost looked angry at him. Like he was trying to take something from her, when he was just trying to help.
“Natalie filled me in a little,” East offered. “You know that the dick Michelle was with before she moved here basically controlled her. Then dumped her when she finally tried to do something for herself.” East shook his head. “Between city-tight-ass parents and an emotionally abusive relationship, it’s no wonder that woman fights so hard for her life.”
That made Dex stop. His stomach twisted, because East’s story sounded awful. Awful that Michelle had to deal with that. Was still dealing with it. And it clicked now why she snapped at him when he’d said, “we.” She was trying to stand up for herself to her father, and he’d swooped in and made it about them instead of about her.
“She ran after you last night at the restaurant,” East said.
That made Dex’s head snap up and meet his buddy’s eyes. “She did?”
“Yep. And when you weren’t there, she went back inside and gave her parents an earful in your defense.”
Dex stopped mid-stride and stood on the sidewalk. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m saying that you’re a dick. If you want, I can spell it slowly for you. D-I-C—”
“I mean about Michelle.”
“Well, I don’t know if you deserve to know, considering how you treated her.”
“How I treated her?” Christ, East was as bad as the women he hung out with. He knew all the ins and outs of his damn friends. But that didn’t make him an expert. Certainly not more of an expert on Dex than Dex was on himself. Yet here East was claiming he knew something Dex had completely missed.
Any other day, he would have told his friend where to stick his insight.
But Dex already knew East was on to something. Because deep down, he’d known he’d made a mistake with Michelle ever since she’d left last night. Hearing East say something only confirmed it.
“Her dad was ready to pay me for my services,” Dex said. “Do you know what that would make me?”
“Yeah, stupid. Because you know that’s not what Michelle wanted you for.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dex said, getting it all out there and hearing how wrong it all sounded with every word. “She wanted a good time. That’s it. She never had a claim on me, and I never had a claim on her.”
“Because you never made one,” East said.
Yeah. Wasn’t that the hell of it?
“We’re too different. From different worlds,” Dex said. “And she wants independence more than anything.” So taking him on as her boyfriend or any kind of commitment wasn’t likely. “Even if she does have feelings for me. Me pulling for her would just make her afraid all over again. Might even make her feel like a failure when she needs to know she’s anything but.”
East shook his head. “You’re too busy buying into your own bullshit to see that those worlds could co-exist if you wanted. Did you give her a chance to claim you? Give her a reason to? Did you offer more than your ‘good-time Dex’ sense of humor?”
No, he hadn’t. To any of that. But she’d come after him, tried to explain, and he’d shut her out. Because he’d assumed she was like the others. And he’d made that assumption from the beginning. He’d acknowledged and then ignored all of the signs that proved she wasn’t like the other women. The signs that proved how right she was for him. The signs that proved…