He gave me an awkward shrug.
“We carried on like this, stolen hours on the beach, etc. At the beginning of freshman year, there were a lot of texts, and a lot of dirty Skype calls. Then Christmas comes around, and we have a house full of people. And I’m wondering which bathroom we’ll end up screwing in. But Fucker Tanning gets down on one knee in front of God and everybody and proposes to my sister.”
Rafe’s eyebrows shot toward the sky. “Say what?”
“That’s right. He’d been seeing her the whole time. They kept it on the D.L. though, and he said it was because he didn’t want people to gossip about how he was dating the boss’s daughter.”
“Jesucristo. What did you do?”
“I did what any self-respecting girl does. I cried my eyes out in my bedroom for all of Christmas break. Then I went back to college. They set a wedding date for a year later.”
“You didn’t tell her?” Rafe asked.
I crossed my arms, indignant. “Of course I told her. Eventually. It took me a pretty long time to just get over the shock. I kept waiting for someone to call me up and say that it was a joke. I mean… the things he used to say to me. So many promises, so many lies. It took me a few months just to wrap my head around it. But when summer came, I had to look my sister in the eye again. And he was always around. And I just couldn’t stand it anymore. So one night when my sister was over for dinner, and it was just the family, I told them the whole sordid tale.”
Rafe was watching me so closely then. I could see wheels turning behind his chocolate eyes. And when he figured out what had happened, he suddenly looked sad. “They didn’t believe you.”
Slowly, I shook my head.
“Seriously? They thought you invented that?”
“Well.” I had to clear my throat. “At first, they listened. My sister freaked out. She confronted him. And for one whole day I thought logic would prevail. But of course he lied through his teeth. The guy is slick.”
Rafe made an angry sound in his throat. “That’s… incredible, Bella. Your parents ought to believe family first.”
Maybe. But Rafe didn’t know me all that well. “My family already thought of me as the crazy one. ‘There goes poor, slutty Bella, looking for attention.’ I wasn’t an easy kid. They set rules, and I broke them. I was always lying about where I was going, and who I was with.”
Rafe did not look convinced, and I loved him for it. “Skirting your curfew is not the same as making up a story about your sister’s fiancé.”
True. “They didn’t take the trouble to make the distinction, I guess. To my father, Fucker Tanning had been part of the family for a few years already. They thought of him as the good son they never had. And he said he wanted to take care of their perfect daughter. Meanwhile, they had this other daughter that was always giving them heart attacks. My parents walked in on me once with a boy from high school. We were screwing in their bed.”
Rafe laughed into his hand.
“I know. It’s hysterical. I was always that kid. When my sister was eighteen and I was fourteen, my mother took us out for a girls’ brunch at the Russian Tea Room. My sister said, ‘Mom, I think I need birth control.’ And then I said, ‘Oh, that’s easy. You can just buy condoms at the drugstore. That’s what I do.’ My mother choked on her caviar.”
“Dios.”
“Dios shakes his head whenever I get a big idea.”
At least I had Rafe smiling now. And I loved his smile. “Someday,” he said, “you might have a daughter…”
“People keep warning me that karma is a bitch.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I mean at all. You’ll have a daughter, and she’ll be able to tell you whatever is in her head. And you won’t hit the roof — you’ll just deal with it, you know? The girls in my neighborhood, they hit high school and all the aunties start heaping on the guilt. ‘Don’t wear short skirts, because the boys will think you’re easy. Don’t let him kiss you. Don’t let him touch you. Go to confession.’ It’s crazy.”
“I wouldn’t last an hour.”
His smile fell. “I’m sorry your family got it so wrong, though. That’s not fair. Even if he is slick, they should listen to you.”
“I’ve had a long time to think about it now, though. I think my mother actually believes me. But she doesn’t know what to do. And the more psych classes I take, the easier it is to see that Fucker Tanning is pretty cracked.”