“How long have we been friends, Chester?” I ask.
“Too long.”
“Long enough for me to be embarrassingly honest with you for a few seconds?”
“No.” He smiles. “Give it five more years, and then we’ll be there.”
I want to smile back, but I can’t.
“Let me tell you something embarrassingly honest first,” he says, puffing his cigar. “I hated your parents.”
“What?”
“Well, not them per se. I meant the way they acted long before they had you and your brothers, I mean,” he says. “Hot and cold, toxic and obsessed… a lot like you and Miss Jane.”
“They dated a lot longer than Miss Jane and I.”
“He proposed after only knowing her for a month.”
“Because he knew she was the one that soon?”
“He knew he didn’t want another man to ever touch her.” He rolls his eyes. “He told her that if she wanted to break up, she could file for divorce after the wedding.”
“I see.” I sip my whiskey. “I never knew that.”
“Similar to how you’ve behaved with Miss Jane, isn’t it?”
“I don’t recall buying a ring.”
“No, but you fast-tracked her divorce and pushed her husband out of the picture.”
“He did that to himself.”
“And the moment she was single, you made sure she never left your sight or your security’s sight,” he says. “If you weren’t currently on a revenge arc, I have no doubt you’d be telling me about a wedding.”
“She left me.”
“She needed to.” He looks at me. “I think you can get her back over time.”
“That’s the embarrassingly honest thing I wanted to discuss.” I down the rest of my glass. “You once said if she discovered how I really knew her, she wouldn’t want to be with me.”
“I remember,” he says. “But a lot has changed since then… Doyouthink she would?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I never thought she’d leave me.”
“You don’t think she’ll come back?”
“Not before I personally bring her back…”
End of Episode 24
Just to be Close to You
EPISODE 25
Ryder
How I “Met” Her
