leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
“What d’ye want to know about first?”
“Us,” I answered. “Tell me what happened between us.”
He exhaled a deep breath and started talking.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ELLIOT
Twenty-five years old . . .
“Irish, are you crying?”
I cut AJ a glare as he fell on to the sofa next to me with a wry grin on his face.
“Don’t start,” I warned. “I’m wound up tighter than a slag in a confessional.”
AJ laughed. “What’s wrong?”
I didn’t answer.
“Let me guess,” he said, stroking his imaginary goatee. “Your parents’ divorce is eating at you again?”
I glanced at him. “How’d ye know?”
“Because you haven’t been yourself since they told you and Bailey about it. I’m more than a pretty face – I tend to see what’s right in front of me.”
I sighed. “The whole thing has fucked with me head big-time. I want me ma and da to be happy, I do . . . but I never thought that them bein’ apart would be their solution to findin’ that happiness. I can’t imagine either of them bein’ with other people. I knew they were havin’ problems but divorce? It’s caught me off guard. I’m kind of bitter about it.”
I was more than “kind of” bitter, I was a whole fucking lot bitter. For as long as I could remember, I had idolised my parents’ relationship, their marriage, their love . . . I’d even told Noah on the day I loved her for the first time that I wanted us to have a love like my parents did. A love that had since fallen apart and ended.
My parents were together for ten years before they became man and wife. When they told me that they were getting a divorce, I asked my father when he and my mother’s problems began – and he laughed and said their wedding day. I knew he’d said it as a joke, but it stuck with me and had been on my mind for the past six weeks.
I couldn’t shake it off.
For as long as I could remember, my parents had been in love. They were a team, they tackled everything in life as partners. They never made decisions without the other’s input, they were a unit and I loved that about them. I loved that they had so much trust, love and respect for one another. Learning that their love had come to an end made me question everything I thought I knew about them. My dad saying that their problems had started the day of their marriage had hit me like a brick. It meant my perception of their marriage, of their love, was completely and utterly wrong.
The more I thought about that, the more I thought about my relationship with Noah. I’d wanted a relationship like my parents’, but now that relationship was dead and not what I thought – and it made me question everything. I loved Noah and she loved me, I knew that, but now that the worry and doubt had crept into my mind, I wondered if my relationship was really as perfect as I thought it was.
It was all fucking with my head.
“I don’t blame you for being angry,” AJ said as he handed me the can of cider he’d grabbed from my fridge. “Have you talked to your parents about it since they told you?”
“No,” I grunted as I cracked open the can. “Bailey was so acceptin’ of it. She was completely understandin’. I just stared at them both until dinner ended, then I came home to Noah. I’ve been avoidin’ both of their calls because I know they’ll just want to talk about it. I’ve only seen them a couple of times over the last few weeks, and that’s only because Noah insisted we drop by for a cuppa. Neither of them would risk upsettin’ her so I’ve yet to hear what they have to say about me silence on the matter.”
AJ snorted. “Everyone loves Noah.”
“Tell me about it.” I took a swig of my drink. “She’s easy to love, but fuckin’ hell, AJ, she just keeps talkin’ about weddings.”
“In what way?” he asked with an eyebrow raised. “Other people’s weddings?”
“Everyone’s fuckin’ weddin’,” I grumbled as I shook my head. “She’s bought every bridal magazine ever published, and leaves them in places I’ll have to move them. She left one on the toilet seat the other day, mate.”
AJ snickered. “She was never good at being subtle, not even when she fancied you but pretended she didn’t.”