Page 11 of Forked (Frenched 2)
I smiled with tight lips. I would not let him provoke me. “Just one.”
He touched his chest, which was hugged by a tight black Burger Bar t-shirt, sleeves tight around his biceps. I noticed he wore a silver Shinola watch, which momentarily distracted me because I’d always been really turned on by Nick’s thick strong wrists and forearms. “Whew. For a moment there, I didn’t feel special. I mean, since you left me, you’ve had time for…” He checked the watch. “At least thirty more marriages as long as ours.”
Fuck it, I was provoked. “Left you! You left me, remember? In a hotel room in Vegas? On our wedding night?”
Lou’s eyebrows rose above the rim of his mug, and he looked at Nick as if waiting for an explanation. But I wasn’t about to give him a chance to defend himself. Fuck calm, cool, and unemotional—he wasn’t pinning this on me. “Or have you forgotten the note you left me on the nightstand, right next to your ring? ‘This was a mistake.’ That ring a bell?”
“I apologized, didn’t I? You’re the one who filed for divorce and left for Europe without talking to me, like a stubborn teenager.”
“Stubborn teenager! You apologized in a text message, Nick. Two words—I’m sorry.” Briefly I put my hands over my ears and took a deep breath. It was seven years too late for this, and I hadn’t come here to fight. “Look, it doesn’t matter anymore. Yes, I filed for divorce and left for Europe without talking to you.
Because you were right—the marriage was a mistake.”
Nick shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I disagree. And I tried to tell you that but you divorced me too fast.”
I fisted my hands in my lap so tight it felt like my fingernails might slice my palms. “We would have divorced anyway, Nick. We were young and stupid.”
“I was stupid. You were just mad. And I don’t blame you for that.”
I cocked my head. “But you blame me for other things?”
The air between us grew charged. Nick leveled me with his eyes. “In the end, it was you that decided we were done.”
“You cheated on me.”
“You lied to me.”
“You lied to me first.”
“That wasn’t the same.”
“Wait, you guys lost me.” Lou picked up his beer again and turned to Nick. “Let’s start with you. What did you lie about?”
“He lied about sex, for one thing.” I crossed my arms, grumpy at the memory. “When we were freshmen in college, he told me he was a virgin like I was.”
“I had to, or she wasn’t going to sleep with me.” Nick threw his hands up. “I had to have her, Lou. I’m sorry I lied, but I was in love with her and I had to have her. At least I came clean when it was over.”
Lou nodded, as if he was the arbiter of what was fair in this fight. “OK. Sort of a douchey move, but possibly understandable, give the…circumstances.” He gestured vaguely toward my chest. “And what did you lie about?”
“Wait a minute, what circumstances?” I sat up taller, narrowing my eyes at him.
“I think he means the circumstances protruding from your ribcage.” Nick’s grin lit up his face.
“The legs too,” added Lou. “And the face. Did anyone ever tell you you look like young Lauren Bacall?”
“Exactly.” Nick shook his head. “I was nineteen and in love with the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I could not be expected to behave.”
I blushed, but anger won out a moment later. It was just like Nick to make me mad and then flatter me right into forgiving him. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. That does not excuse you.”
“Well, you lied about Paris.” He turned to Lou. “Her junior year she told me she hadn’t been accepted to this exchange program she’d always planned on doing. But she’s such a bad liar, I figured out the truth.”
“I didn’t want to go that year. You didn’t have a problem with me staying behind at the time.” Probably because you spent a good part of that year screwing me from behind.
“Then the following year she told me she hadn’t even applied, another obvious lie. But she stuck to it, and I had to hear the truth from her friend Mia.”
“Because I didn’t want to leave you, asshole.” I’d been angry at Mia for weeks about that, but she said she’d only caved and confirmed what Nick suspected when he promised her he’d encourage me to go. Mia thought I was crazy to forego the opportunity to study in Paris for a guy.
“Leaving me wouldn’t have necessarily meant breaking up. We could have stayed together.”
