My breath caught in my throat, and my mouth went dry. I hadn’t considered that, and now that the accusation was in the open, I felt a little sick.
“Des, what the hell is your problem?” Avery was visibly ruffled now. Underneath the table, he grabbed my hand again, holding on when I attempted to pull it away. “Tori, I have not slept with a single one of those women.” He turned to look right at me. “I promise you that, okay?” His eyes were pleading with me to believe him, but I looked away.
Where the hell is that waiter with my other drink?
Smirking as if she’d found a pot of gold, Des spoke up again. “Don’t you have rules about that, Tori? I remember you telling me you ‘strongly advised’ clients to not sleep together until they’d gone on several dates.” She had a vicious look in her eyes I recognized from the few times I’d seen her go at it with others. She didn’t care about hurting feelings at this point, she just wanted to win.
“Like we followed that!” Drew snorted. “We were all over each other the night of that first date, so why are you out here fronting, Des? Why are you going in so hard on Avery?”
She jerked her head in his direction. “Because I don’t like thinking he tried to make a move on my friend, especially that night. She was vulnerable, and he could have hurt her really bad!”
“And what about me, Des?” Avery’s words were slow, and measured. “I’m your brother. You don’t think hearing you say — and tell the whole damned world — this bullshit about me doesn’t hurt? You’ve been off base about who you think I am, no matter how I tried to correct you, so I stopped bothering. Yeah, okay, I changed after being away at school, I changed after Natalie, but I’m not this guy who’s running around mistreating women like you seem to think I am. I agreed to do this matchmaking thing because you asked me to, and I’ve been into it, full force. And now, because of some more shit you think I did, you’re gonna sit here and dog me out at this table full of people?”
Realization washed over Des, and her expression of triumph turned to one of remorse as her eyes welled with tears. “Avery, I’m not trying to dog you, I just got a little… carried away, I guess. I know you’re not a bad guy, but when it comes to Tori, she’s…. she needs a little more… she’s just… I mean, she’s…”
“I’m… what, Des?” Her lips parted when I spoke, catching her by surprise. Had she forgotten I was there? Tears pricked my eyes as I realized why she was being so protective of me. “You think I’m stupid don’t you?” It took her a second too long to answer, and I began shaking my head.
She held her hands up defensively. “Tori, of course I don’t think you’re stupid. More like… like…”
“Naive? Ditsy?” I assisted, not bothering to hide the disgust in my voice.
“No, Tori, will you listen? I just—.” She glanced around at the table full of people. “Do we have to have this conversation right now, in front of everyone?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Are you serious? You wanted to discuss everything else, but now that you’re on the spot, you want the conversation to wait for another time? Hell no.”
“Fine,” she snapped, crossing her arms. “When it comes to men, you make terrible decisions. I’ve known you for years Tori, and I’ve watched you give your worst to great guys, and give your very best to awful men, including your ex-husband, who I told you wasn’t worth shit. I’m sorry, Tee, but that’s the truth.” She pressed her lips together in a tight line when she was done, leaning into Drew as if she were drawing strength from him.
A painful tightness gripped my throat as I clenched my hands into fists in my lap. “So… all of that stuff you were saying to try to convince me not to give up on love… what was that? Just platitudes? You didn’t believe any of that shit, did you? You were saying what a ‘good friend’ would say, anything to make poor, lonely, can’t-seem-to-get-it-right Tori feel better, huh?”