Girl in Love(115)
Gretchen raised her eyebrows. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why did you?”
Kylie felt her forehead wrinkling as she tried to explain. “Because…because seeing the two of you made me realize that you have something with him that I never will. You understand about his drinking and you’re the one who he turns to in a crisis or when he needs help.”
“So? You gonna take up drinking so you can room together in rehab?”
Kylie’s eyes narrowed. “No. But I’m not going to stick around and wait for him to ask you what you think about he and I being together just so you can tell him to toss me out with the garbage either.” She sucked her bottom lip in so it wouldn’t give her pain away. “He told me himself that he respects you and values your opinion. And you’ve made your opinion of me pretty clear.”
Gretchen surprised her by laughing. “Seriously? That’s why you left? Why you’re making him give you space or what the hell ever?”
Does he tell her everything?
Kylie shrugged. She didn’t need to describe the details of what the last year of her life had been like for this woman. “For the most part. Yeah.”
“Well in that case, I have good news.”
Kylie eyed her skeptically, wondering what good news she could possibly have. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“The truth is, even if I tell him to stay as far from you as humanly possible for the sake of his sobriety, he’s not going to listen.”
“How do you know?”
Gretchen’s eyes lowered, making her seem mildly ashamed of herself. “Because that’s what I’ve been doing every time I’ve talked to him. I’ve been a pretty shitty friend to him actually. Telling him that he was a screw-up that couldn’t handle being with you because you’re young and unpredictable and he’d just mess everything up again.”
Kylie felt her eyes widen at the grand confession from Gretchen Gibson. She cleared her throat. “Okay. So what changed your mind?”
Gretchen met her imploring stare. “Seeing your interview. And the fact that you basically told the label to fuck themselves and deal with it because they can’t switch Trace out with a dipshit like Parker and expect you to play along. Hearing you say those things about Trace—that you clearly believe to be true—I realized that I might have been wrong about you. About both of you.”
“I love him,” Kylie said evenly. “Of course I believe those things to be true.”
“Well, good.” Gretchen finished off her coffee and moved her cup to the side. “Look, I’m not here for entirely unselfish reasons. This business deal is the one good thing I have in my life—the one thing I’m hoping will allow me to provide for my son myself. But if you can’t handle Trace being involved with me like that, I’m sure he’ll say to hell with it if you say the word.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Kylie assured her.
“Well I appreciate that. I know you and I aren’t going to be shopping buddies anytime soon, and I won’t lie and pretend I think you’re necessarily what’s best for him. But I’ll keep my opinion to myself and I’ll respect that the two of you are together. I really do care about the rehab facility. That place may have stopped Trace from destroying his life, but it’s what kept me from ending mine.”
Kylie struggled to swallow. She’d never really thought about how bad off Gretchen might’ve been. She’d been too busy hating her.
As they stood to leave, Gretchen pulled out her wallet. Kylie shook her head and slid several bills onto the table.
“Hey, Gretchen?”
“Yeah?”
“For what it’s worth, I hope the investment deal works out for you. For you and Trace both. But even if it doesn’t, I bet your son won’t think any less of you.”
The bell overhead chimed as they exited the diner. The woman smiled at her with gratitude in her eyes.
“Oh, and Gretchen, one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Kylie smiled sweetly. “If and when Trace and I do work things out, I’ll expect any offers you make him to remain strictly business-related.”
To Kylie’s surprise, the woman grinned back at her. And nodded her understanding. “Good luck to you, Kylie. I guess if you decide to work things out with Trace then I’ll be seeing you around.”
Kylie watched the woman—who’d been the bane of her existence for the past year—walk off in the other direction. She knew she couldn’t hear her, but the words came out anyways.
“See you around, Gretchen.”
“DOES ONE really need to wear a tie for a meeting in which one is getting dropped from one’s record label?”