perfectly happy kicking all of them out, and now he was throwing me under the bus.
“Fine. Carter, I’d love to go to lunch.”
“What?” Robert said in surprise. “But I just took care of your car for you.”
“And I appreciate that, but there’s no need for you to stick around.”
I slid my arm through Carter’s and headed out the door with him and down the stairs. I didn’t know if this thing with Carter was going anywhere, but I definitely knew that anything with Robert was out of the question.
Robert
“Seriously, what did you do to make that woman hate you so much?”
I watched her walk out the door and then I moved to the window to watch her get into Carter’s truck. She should have been going with me. Last night when I got home, I started thinking about what Anna said to me. She was right, I had no right to walk in and pretend that everything was fine. But there was still something between us. I could feel it. I just had to warm her up to having something with me again. I had hoped that my grand gesture of helping her out with her car would do the trick, but that didn’t seem to work. Maybe I needed something bigger. I just needed something that would allow me more time with her.
“Hey, is this going to happen very often?”
“What?”
“The whole showing up in the middle of the day.”
“No, I took the afternoon off.”
He stared at me and then snorted in laughter. “You thought you were going to spend the afternoon with her?”
“No, I just…” I ran my hand through my hair, something I was doing a lot of lately. “I just thought that we could find some kind of common ground.”
He leaned back in the chair and studied me. “What happened between you two back then? It never made any sense to me. You were head over heels for that girl and she was wrapped around your finger. And then one day, you were heading off to college and she was going to her aunt’s house.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.”
“Apparently not. Whatever happened still lives with her every day.”
“How can you be so sure? How do you know she hasn’t just changed?”
He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “Because a woman that is upset about something a guy does will eventually move on from it. It’s been thirteen years since you broke up. If she was over it, she would be able to have a civil conversation with you. She couldn’t wait to get out of here and away from you. Which tells me that whatever you did, you royally fucked up.”
“Fine, I fucked up. We fucked up. I thought she didn’t want me around anymore.”
“So, you just walked away and now you expect a second chance with her?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I thought that I would do this really awesome thing and she would…you know, want to go out with me.”
“What kind of car did you get her?”
“A Toyota Camry.”
He hissed in a breath and shook his head.
“What? No good?”
“Reliable, dependable…” He nodded his head from side to side. “I mean, it’s a good car, but it doesn’t scream I love you.”
“It wasn’t supposed to. It was supposed to help her out.”
“Well, you at least got her a new one, right?”
I ran my hand along the back of my neck. “It’s twelve years old.”
He stared at me and then burst out laughing. “Twelve… you got her a car that’s twelve years old and you think she’s going to just fall in love with you?”
“It’s in good condition.”
“Mr. Moneybags can’t even break out the cash for a new car? Oh my God. Wait until Ma hears this.”
“She wouldn’t have wanted a new car,” I argued. “She doesn’t want help or handouts. I was trying to do something that she would be grateful for and accept.”
“Jesus, when Kat moved out, I got her furniture and paid her rent. You got Anna, the girl you’re trying to win back, a twelve year old, reliable car.”
“Stop busting my balls. I was working with what I know about her.”
“Yeah, but women are never what you think they are. Let’s say you get her to go on a date with you. Knowing what you know about her, that she doesn’t want handouts and everything, are you going to take her to a soup kitchen for your date?”
“You know, you’re a real asshole.”
“It was a serious question,” he said incredulously.