desired this past week, and I was rethinking our relationship. It may just be time to clean house all around.
“Hey, Mom, are you okay?” I asked. In the back of my mind I’d already concluded that she was most likely calling to tell me things with husband number five hadn’t worked out and she was coming back to the states.
“Are you okay? People have been sending me links of pictures of you having an affair and I spoke to Drake and—”
“Wait!” I stopped at the edge of the parking lot of The Tipsy Cow. “You spoke to Drake?”
“Of course I did! I called to see how he was doing after I saw the pictures.”
“You called to see how he was doing?!”
“I think you might want to rethink that tone. I’m not the one who was caught cheating on her boyfriend. Her handsome, successful boyfriend.”
“I didn’t cheat on Drake.”
“That’s not what he says, and he has proof.”
In the back of my head I knew that I should hang up the phone. This conversation was pointless. She’d never taken my side in my entire life so it should not surprise me that she wouldn’t now. Nothing I could say would change the woman who gave birth to me into a good mom. Nothing I could say would make the betrayal of her calling Drake before me sting any less. But for some reason, I still ended up defending myself. “He cheated on me. I broke up with him and came to see Gam. We went to a wedding and I had a few too many drinks and ended up kissing someone. But we were already done.”
“I don’t think he’s the type to cheat.”
“Neither did I until I caught him fucking Janika!”
A few people that were getting out of their car to head into the bar turned and looked at me.
“Sorry,” I lifted my hand in a wave and walked to a more deserted area.
“You don’t have to apologize to me. I think you owe Drake the apology.”
“What?!” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Whatever you think you saw was done in private. You’re the one that aired your dirty laundry out for the world to see. But he still cares about you. I think if you call him, and tell him that you’re sorry and promise him it won’t happen again, he might take you back.”
I thought Gen had been unsupportive. Compared to my mom Gen was Thelma to my Louise. “Okay, first, I wasn’t apologizing to you. And in what world would I want to be back together with Drake? He cheated on me, Mom.”
“You are so dramatic, sometimes.”
“I have to go, Mom.” I disconnected the call before she could respond.
As I stood, staring down at my phone I realized that I had surrounded myself in relationships that were not healthy. Hannah was probably the most stable, supportive relationship I had and I paid her. She worked for me.
I honestly didn’t recognize my life and I wasn’t sure when that had happened. Every relationship I had, aside from Gam, was really just about the other person. Gen, Drake, my mom. All of those relationships were fine if I did what they wanted, were there for them when they needed me, and basically the entire relationship revolved around them.
All my life, I’d felt lonely. When I was growing up, I thought it was because I was an only child. When I became an adult, I thought it was because I didn’t live close to relatives and the industry I was in, was isolating.
But I was starting to think that the reason I always felt so alone was because I was. That’s what happens when someone surrounds themselves with selfish, narcissistic people.
Being here had opened my eyes to see that there were good people in the world, I’d just attached myself to the bad ones.
Chapter 24
Beau
“Love is a lot like dancing, they are both better when the timing’s right but can still be fun if it’s not.”
~ Barbara-Jean Nelson
JJ knocked his elbow against mine. “Are you gonna ask her to dance already?” he asked over the music playing from the speakers and the chatter and laughter around us at The Tipsy Cow.
“Who?” I asked as I sipped my beer.
Playing dumb wasn’t something I normally did, but Sasha brought out a protective side of me. The last thing she needed was more publicity. And I knew that if I asked her to dance, then there’d be dozens pictures taken of us. When