Reading Online Novel

Unrequited(70)



"What are you watching?"

It was Lana, our resident psychologist who by virtue of having been in therapy since she was eleven and now majoring in psych at Central College, who enjoyed analyzing our sick lives to her textbook diagnoses. She'd have a field day with my situation.

"The Joy Luck Club," Adam replied when I didn't.

"I love this movie,” she exclaimed and joined us on the couch.

Of course she did.

"So listen, Lana, I have a psychological dilemma for you," Adam began. I shot him warning looks, but he ignored me. And I couldn't forcefully shut him up because that would've tipped Lana off.

"Lay it on me." She turned toward him and tucked her hair behind her ears as if ready to take notes on this great case. My fucking life.

"I dated this girl in high school. Three years, and then her parents died. She turned into this raging alcoholic, cheated on me repeatedly, so I broke up with her."

"Is this why you can't settle down? I wondered why you flitted from one girl to another, but this explains it. A girl broke your heart, and now you can't trust again."

"What? No," Adam protested. "This isn't about me. This is a friend."

"Sure it is." Lana nodded with exaggerated patience. "Tell me more about your 'friend.'" She held up her fingers to form the quotation signs. Adam's aggrieved look made me laugh for the first time since the party when it all went to hell.

Adam sighed. "Okay, so my friend dated this chick in high school and then broke up with her. Fast forward several years."

"How many is several?"

"Five." I held up six fingers behind Lana's back. Adam rolled his eyes but corrected himself. "Six years. He has a one-night stand with the sister of this chick, falls in love. The ex-girlfriend is all upset that the sister is going out with my friend. She basically has the girl break up with my friend. Why?"

"Because the ex still has feelings for you."

"My friend."

"Whoever."

I shook my head. Ivy didn't want me. She had no interest in me. The only times she came on to me were when she thought she could break Winter and me up. Now that we were, Ivy had more interest in sticks. And I felt the same about her.

"She doesn't have feelings for me. I don't think she has feelings for anyone but herself."

"Oh, well then she was jealous that she had to share her sister with you. I mean, your friend," Lana added before Adam could correct her.

I knew all this. What I wanted to know was how to win Winter back. I made a winding motion with my hand.

Adam huffed. "So what should I do now?"

Lana drew back and looked first at Adam and then at me with astonishment. "How should I know?"

"But you're always giving us advice," I nearly shouted at her when she got up and walked out of the television room.

She turned, and I reared back at the pain in her eyes. "You can't make anyone love you. If she loves you, she'll eventually come and find you again. If she doesn't, then there's nothing you can do."

Bullshit.

I replayed the movie, and it ended in the same goddamned depressing way.

I found out where Tucker lived and started driving by the small two-bedroom house. It looked like a piece of shit and was in dire need of improvements. I wondered what they were doing in there. My anxiety levels fell from life threatening to a dull ache after I saw Tucker bring a girl home and then another. They weren’t having sex but I kept wondering what she was thinking, how she was coping.

Only Ivy seemed happy. I swear to God she hummed because she knew I was miserable that Winter was staying away. This was my punishment for not being open with Winter in the first place. If I’d confessed to everything that first night or even the night that I’d convinced Winter to come back to me, then we would have started out on the right foot. Ivy’s pregnancy announcement would have been something we would have both taken in stride. Winter said she believed me but that it didn’t matter. I wasn’t convinced of that. Deep down, I think Winter was scared that she wasn’t first in my heart, and I didn’t know what I could do to change her feelings.

Two weeks after the fallout, I decided to tackle the outdoor grill that had sat in disrepair for almost a year now at Woodlands. When we’d bought the place, the only thing that had been finished in the yard was the pool and the exterior of the pool house. The guys and I had dug up the yard, smoothed it out, laid sod, and put down brick pavers, but we’d never got around to fixing the outdoor kitchen.

Adam and I had gotten the brilliant idea to build an oven to cook pizzas, but we hadn't ever finished it. I had nothing better to do. The build downtown was going well. Henry had finally decided I was competent and told me I didn't need to be on site all the time. My girlfriend wouldn't talk to me, and I had no flips going on. I had decided to table them until the Riverside project was complete.