“So what’s his story?”
“You’re never going to believe this, but I think he had some sort of relationship with my mother,” I whispered. “And I haven’t had a chance to talk to either one of them about it. Although I guess I can now. Dallas won’t keep his trap shut about the two of us. My mother and father will know by morning, I’m sure.”
Ruthie’s mouth dropped open.
“So you think they were like…what…fucking? He didn’t seem the type to cheat.”
I refrained from saying that he was the type.
That he’d done it in the past.
Then she’d think I was crazy for still being with him.
Ruthie hated cheaters.
Her now dead husband had been a cheater.
And she had an irrational annoyance with them.
She contributed her husband’s desire to beat her to the fact that she’d confronted him about his cheating.
So I decided to steer clear of that topic.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I have to talk to him about it. There hasn’t been time to ask. And I don’t want to ask my mother, because that’s just awkward. What if they did share a relationship of some sort?”
She shrugged.
But before she could say anything else, a man’s throat clearing had me looking up.
At Isaac.
Oh, yay!
“Yeah?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I thought I’d check to see how you were doing,” he said, eyes smiling at me.
I blinked.
“How I’m doing?” I asked, confirming what he’d said.
He nodded.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you. I didn’t have much choice,” he said, pointing with his thumb at the woman behind him.
Ruthie snorted into her drink before taking another sip, trying gallantly not to get into the middle of what she knew was about to become a huge fight.
“Well, Isaac, I guess I’m doing alright considering,” I said smoothly.
He blinked.
“Considering what?” He asked.
It was my turn to blink.
“Are you really that stupid, Isaac?” I asked slowly.
He frowned. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to you.”
“Let me start from the beginning then,” I said, holding up one finger. “You forced me to go to a party eight years ago that I didn’t want to go to, and, as a result, I killed four people.” I held up a second finger. “Then you lead me on for eight years. Telling me you’ll be waiting for me when I get out. Yet, the day I get out, you don’t show up, and my best friend tells me that you’re getting married – to the woman you knocked up.”
His eyes narrowed. “A guy has needs, Sawyer.”
I laughed humorlessly.
“Oh yeah, a guy has needs. Sure, I understand. How about you just go and leave with the girl that met your needs, and leave me to eat my burger in peace, hmm?” I asked snidely.
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know why you’re being such a bitch.”
Patience has never been Ruthie’s strong suit, and I was waiting for her to make her move; I intercepted it before she could.
“Ahh,” I reprimanded Ruthie, taking my cup of coffee from her hands and placing it back on the table. “It’s not worth it. And I’m over him anyway.”
Ruthie turned annoyed eyes to me.
“Well, he definitely could use a talking to,” she hissed. “Leave already.”
Isaac gave the two of us one more long look, before he turned on his heel and walked back over to the woman that was staring daggers at me.
I waved back at her, amused that she thought she could intimidate me.
It’d take a lot more than a glare, bitch, to make that happen, I thought humorlessly. I’ve got a black belt in prison yard tactics. I could have her on the ground before she even had a chance to lift that finger she was pointing at me.
“That was fun,” Ruthie said as the waitress placed a chocolate milkshake down in front of her.
Ruthie pounced on it like a starving dog.
“God,” she breathed. “I forgot how great this shit was.”
I could entirely relate.
You just seemed to have a greater appreciation of the simple things in life after having them withheld from you for any length of time.
For instance, going to the bathroom or taking a shower.
A day hasn’t gone by in the last month that I haven’t said a silent prayer of thanks over the fact that I now had a door I could shut while I was using the restroom.
You could never really understand the humiliation of having to do number two in front of a guard unless you’d had no choice.
Ruthie and I had done damn near everything in front of the other.
There wasn’t one thing she could do right now that would shock or surprise me.
“Your Bristol didn’t look very happy with me,” Ruthie said once she’d downed nearly half of the chocolate shake.