“I didn’t say you should do that,” Des said, rolling her eyes. “But because you haven’t done anything to work on your healing process, you’re still vulnerable, and raw, and… that’s part of why I freaked out about Avery being around you, once I found out he knew you were divorced.”
“Des, give that a rest, my goodness. Avery hasn’t done anything to me. Why do you go in on him so hard?”
She pushed out a sigh as she absently swirled her spoon in her cup. “Avery is… a great guy, in a lot of aspects, and he’s been an excellent brother to me. But when it comes to the way he uses and then disposes of women… that disgusts me. He reminds me of the same guys who used to break our hearts repeatedly, and it’s hard to swallow. I hate that part of him.”
“What makes you so sure it exists?”
“Because they’ve come to me, Tee. Crying their eyes out because Avery won’t return a call or text, will barely speak to them on the street. He did that shit to one of my friends, and then had the nerve to lie about it!”
“Or maybe she lied.” I picked my cup to take a sip, keeping my eyes focused on Des.
“Why would she do that?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Because people lie to manipulate situations all the time? Come on Des, don’t sit here and act as if you’ve never tried to play the pity card with a sister, an auntie, or a cousin when a man wasn’t doing what you wanted him to do. Anything you could do to get his attention, and if that didn’t work, turn people against him, and it looks like your ‘friend’ did a pretty good job on you.”
“But she wasn’t the only one!”
Rolling my eyes, I placed my cup back down on the table. “So? Avery is wealthy, handsome, single, so he’s most heterosexual women’s dream. That exponentially increases the amount of bullshit you’re going to have to deal with until he settles down. I mean… did you forget I was married to a celebrity? I talked to Rafael’s sister about this very thing, and you know what she does? She tunes it out. If she believed every little thing some supposedly scorned woman told her about her brother, she would probably hate him too. And you want to know what’s funny? Her brother did screw me over, and I never said a single negative word to her about him. You know why? Because I’m an adult, not a child who needed to run and tattle on him to his gullible sister.”
Des opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again before going back to swirling her tea, with her brow furrowed. “I get what you’re saying, but what if they aren’t lying?”
“First of all, you’re still focused on the wrong thing. Second… so what if they aren’t? I could see that mattering if his crime was bigger than not returning a few phone calls. You act as if he’s out here smacking people around, or drugging women’s drinks! Do you hear yourself? You’re giving these childish ass stranger-danger women all the benefit of the doubt in the world, yet your brother gets none. That’s messed up Des. Now, you and I are cool, as long as you remember you aren’t my mother, but you and Avery… Des, I don’t know. He says it doesn’t bother him, but I’m not sure that’s true. Part of why he’s doing this whole matchmaking thing is to impress you. He wants your approval, and you’re around here tearing him down, warning people about him, over mess that doesn’t concern you.”
Biting at her lip, Des turned to me, with her eyes full of tears again. “Why didn’t you tell me this before now?”
“Because I didn’t see it before now. Knowing Avery as I do… he’s a good guy. He may not admit it, but he needs his sister to see it too.”
She nodded, wiping her face with the backs of her hands. “I’m gonna go see him when I leave.” After a moment, she chuckled a little, then pulled me into the tightest hug her baby bump would allow. “Thanks for getting me together, Tee. Obviously, I needed it.”
“Yeah, you kinda did,” I agreed. “I wanted to smack the shit out of you at that table, but you’re pregnant, so…”
“You would have hit me?”