protest with a hard kiss. “Make love to me, Isabel. Show me that you’re here, and you’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m already gone, Damien. I’ve been gone since the moment I saw you.”
Damien
One month later…
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Izzy asks as she fills a pot with water and sets it on the stove. “Because this is a lot for you to deal with right now, and I have no problem telling him to fuck off when he gets here.”
I sip my beer from the table and watch her as she floats around the kitchen. Hers is a little bigger than the one at my house, but there’s so much stuff in the cupboards and on the countertop that it almost appears smaller.
After Brody was shot, Izzy refused to get anywhere near that place, and I don’t blame her. It’s currently on the market. I suppose it was a good thing she hadn’t done anything with her lease at that point because instead of her moving in with me, I’ve moved in with her. We’ll get a house together eventually, but she’s not ready, even if she says she is.
Not that she doesn’t want to live with me, but that she needs the security of familiarity right now.
“I’ll be fine, Iz. I asked him to come over. If it goes bad, and I need him gone, I’ll be sure to tell him that I think you left the curling iron on.”
She whips her head at me. “But my hair isn’t even curled.”
“I’m joking, Iz. Trust me.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
The bell to her place goes off, and Judy stands alert as I go open the door. “Hey.”
“Hi.” He holds up a bouquet. “Hope she likes flowers.”
“She’ll love them. Come in.”
Jordan steps through the doorway and waves tentatively at Izzy. “Hi. Thanks for having me.” He holds out the flowers like it’s a peace offering, and she slowly takes them from him.
“Thanks. For coming and for the flowers.” She responds politely and walks back to the kitchen. My brother’s head droops. I can’t fix his guilt or disappointment that she hasn’t completely forgiven him. I haven’t, either and I know there’s a part of me that never will. But that part is so miniscule that I’ve already forgotten it was there.
After we paid that visit to Jordan and Laila, when she lied about where he was the day Izzy’s brakes got cut, he found out that she’d been cheating on him. For years. Since before they were even married, which of course meant while she was with me. I wasn’t surprised to learn that, if anything I was even more disgusted by her. So when she confessed, he divorced her ass immediately.
A few weeks ago, he cornered me at my grandma’s and forced me to talk to him. He begged for five minutes, and when I listened, I couldn’t help but feel empathy for him. He told me things I didn’t know. He told me everything, from how Laila had actually started dating him before me way back in middle school, which was the summer before she and I started high school. I had no clue she’d been his first hand job, first blow job.
For whatever reason, she decided to drop him when she saw me, and that shit screwed with his head and contributed to his distain toward me. I was actually relieved to know that was a factor in our issues and it really had nothing to do with my career choice. I have no clue why he never said anything before, or especially back then. If I’d have known, I never would have started seeing her. Even as a teenager, that bitch was evil.
So when things with she and I started to deteriorate after our marriage, Laila latched back onto him, and he easily succumbed to her manipulation. She was a master at it. He said she changed about a year into the marriage, and for the sake of his pride, he kept up the charade but knew it was a huge mistake. “Before I knew it even happened, I became a version of myself, of this man that I didn’t even recognize.” His eyes were wet, and he could hardly get the words out he was so upset.
We used to be close when we were just kids, Jordan and me. Things changed as we got older, but I forgot about how tight we used to be because of how badly he screwed me over. Hearing him