“How’d it go last night?” He didn’t sound angry, but he did sound down.

“As you can imagine.” She frowned. “Alex was a walking inferno even when I got here.” There was an uncomfortable silence for a long moment. Sofia cleared her voice and lay back down on her bed, gripping the phone to her ear. “Are you still mad at me?”

More silence. She squeezed her eyes, a warm tear slipping down the side of her face. She feared the worse. They’d never get past this.

“I’m just trying to understand why after everything he’s done, you’re still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Sofia sat up on her bed, determined to make him understand even at the risk of making things worse. “Because I can’t in clear conscience just put all the blame on him. Don’t you think it would be easier for me to just agree with you and my brothers? Yes, it was all him. He duped me and poor innocent little me fell for it, he’s a monster! But I can’t, Eric. I knew just going to his house would be an issue with you and my brothers and I still did.”

“You wanted to?”

“I would never choose to hurt you. He said he wanted to show me something, said I didn’t even have to come in he could bring it out. But I chose to go in. Not because I wanted to, Eric, but because at the time it didn’t seem like that big a deal.” She stopped to take a deep breath. “My whole life I’ve been called or it’s been insinuated that I was naïve. That day…”

She wasn’t sure if she should go on, but it felt like this issue would linger forever if she didn’t just say it.

“That day what?” His tone was hard again like it’d been the night before.

“That day I felt something when I went in his room. I wasn’t being naïve, Eric. You all want to believe that I was completely in the dark about what might happen. I had a feeling something would. I could’ve left, walked right out the moment I got that notion but I didn’t. I chose to stay. There’s no way he could’ve planned that.” For a moment, she thought he hung up. “Are you still there?”

He didn’t answer, but she heard him breathe. When he finally spoke, his voice was clearly strained. “So when you told me it just happened so fast you didn’t get a chance to think, that was a bunch of bullshit?”

“No, it did happen fast.”

“But you knew it would and yet you still hung around for it.”

“Eric—”

“I had a beautiful girl throw herself at me last night, Sofia. I could’ve easily done something with her but I didn’t even consider it for second. You know why?”

Sofia didn’t respond. Something squeezed at her throat. When she didn’t answer, he went on.

“Because I would never do to you, what you f**king did to me.”

Sofia was left clutching her phone as the line clicked and Eric hung up on her again.

***

Eric was meeting his dad and the girls for late lunch. His dad called early in the morning, but Eric sent it to voicemail. His dad apologized for his insensitive behavior the night before and asked that he please join them for lunch.

The only reason Eric agreed to go was because he felt compelled to apologize to Jennifer. He never meant to humiliate her. After getting off the phone with Sofia, he now wished he hadn’t called his dad back to tell him he would be there. He was in absolutely no mood for socializing, but his dad had been so glad he was coming and kept apologizing and thanking him. Eric couldn’t bring himself to cancel.

When he got to the table, the girls were nowhere in sight. His dad was sitting at a table by himself.

“What happened? Did they decide not to come?”

His dad shook his head. “No, they’ll be here in about a half hour.” He motioned for Eric to take the seat across from him. “I wanted to talk to you alone first.”

Eric took a seat and prepared himself.

“About last night, I know you think that I just don’t like Sofia, but—”

“No, Dad you were right.” Feeling the anger, but mostly hurt, inundate him again. He told his dad about the conversation he had with Sofia that morning, then he added. “You know last night Jennifer offered herself to me, no strings attached? She’s going back to New York and said we probably would never see each other again, anyway. Sofia would never find out, and I couldn’t even consider it for a moment. And Jennifer is a great girl. But I could never do that to Sofia.” His dad stared at him, hanging on every word. He was sure his dad was shocked that Eric was spilling his guts like this. But he needed to, needed to let it out, so he might start to heal. “Not only did Sofia do what she did, she did it with Brandon, that piece of trash from up the street. The guy that’s been nothing but an ass**le to her and her brothers all her life.” He shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more disgusted he felt. “I thought I could forgive her because I can’t stand being away from her, but I don’t know anymore. I’ve been thinking about what you said last night, maybe she doesn’t deserve me.”

His dad leaned over and patted him on the knee. “Don’t put too much weight on what I said last night. I was drunk and not thinking straight.”

Eric shook his head. The overwhelming pain he’d felt when he first found out about Sofia and Brandon months ago was back. Only this time an utter disgust accompanied it. She’d let that ass**le in. And now he had no idea how to get him out. He’d be the perpetual reminder that his beautiful Sofia wasn’t the perfect girl like he’d always thought. He’d held her on a pedestal since they were kids, and Brandon had knocked her right off.