Page 66 of Packing for Vacation

“I know you're upset,” I say quietly.

“I’m really fucking upset. It's not even about her. I don't care about her. I don’t give a shit!” She shoves a hand in her hair, and even in this faint light I can tell that she’s shaking. It takes everything in me not to reach out to her, and I have to choke back my purr. “What about you two?” she asks, every word laced with hurt.

“What did Debra say?” I should’ve been watching more closely at the restaurant. I saw her leave the bathroom a moment after Lizzie and should have realised then that I was fucked. Aunt Debs has always had a weird thing against me and my brothers, some sort of competitive thing when it comes to her own kids. That she went out of her way to stir shit tonight is one hundred percent believable.

“What do you think she said? What do you think she said after she saw Scott hanging out with you? Is that a normal occurrence? Was she expecting that to happen, to see you with him? What do you think she said?”

I’m in the wrong. I know I’m in the wrong, and yet it takes everything in me not to meet her snarky tone with my own. I opt for silence instead, because if I open my mouth I’m gonna get defensive, as shitty as that is.

Maybe she knows it. “I’ll tell you what I was led to believe,” she says. “When I met you, I asked you how you knew him, and you said he was a colleague, and you talked about how you knew him at uni, and you guys were friends at uni, and now you were colleagues. And neither one of you told me that you didn't speak to each other for fifteen fucking years.”

“We spoke to each other in a professional capacity.”

“Oh my fucking god! You’re such fucking lawyers!”

“Lizzie…” Scott starts.

“I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do!”

“We were going to tell you.”

“Then why didn't you?”

“You went into heat.”

“Oh, so it's my fault. I went into heat. It's my fault that you guys omitted this very important information that you hated his guts, and that he hated you.”

“I never hated him,” I tell her.

“And I never hated him.”

“But you weren't speaking to each other. Why weren't you speaking?”

“I called him a coward for not saving Elaine,” I say. It was a dick move, and I’ve felt guilty about it for years.

“I told him I wasn't interested in her after what she'd done,” Scott adds, “so I was calling it quits, and I meant that I was calling it quits with Elaine, but I think he thought I meant I was calling it quits with him too, and I was too upset and angry to correct him. But I never hated him. He showed up to my mum's funeral. He gave me a hug. He did the haka for Mum. He was my best friend. I like to think that maybe he still is.”

“It's my fault, Lizzie,” I tell her. “When I first met you, I made the split-second decision to not tell you about the background between Scott and I. When I found out you were also scent matched to Scott, it felt like the universe was laughing at me, but I was well aware that if I told you something negative about Scott, that might taint things for you, and he didn't deserve that, and neither did you. He didn't need my judgment or opinion of him overlaid on the situation and influencing what you were going to think about him. And I'll stand by that decision because saying Oh, I was in a pack with this guy, but we had a falling out… that's not appealing. That's not a first date conversation. Is it a second date conversation? A third? Maybe. I acknowledge I should have brought it up sooner.”

“I think it's definitely a conversation that should be had before you apply for a residency for the omega,” she says, a little calmer than before.

“Yep, I agree. I’m sorry.”

“I’m so fucking sorry, Lizzie. Sweet⁠—”

“Don’t sweet me. Not now.” She closes her eyes, looking as drained as I feel. “For starters, it’s humiliating that I had to find out from Matiu’s aunt.”

“This is not an excuse, but just so you know, Debs is a trouble maker, and she’s been that way since I was a kid. Any chance she’ll get, and she’ll cause a big raruraru for the family.”

“No, I know, you’ve told me about your bad aunt before. I was wondering if it was her because she was a bit of a bitch to me in the washroom. Basically implied that I’d kept you from Amokura at Christmas.”

“Fucking unbelievable.”

“So I told her you were fucking me through my heat, and then I said nice to meet you and turned around and got out of there. You should’ve seen her face.”

I find myself smiling despite the current situation. “I can imagine.”

We sit for another length of time in silence, the local ruru keeping us company overhead. “Should we go inside?” I finally ask.