Page 12 of Basil

“Laughwithyou, Sunshine, neveratyou.”

Fuck me! Had I really said something that stupid? Theywerelaughing at her. Iwaslaughing at her.

“Summer was with you because you have all this.” Drew waved a hand around my office. “I get it. You’re handsome, you’re rich, you’re going places—and she comes fromnothing. She doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, Basil, and you have Mensa-level IQ.”

If I’m so bright, how the fuck did I manage to get dumped by the woman I loved?

“I’ve got no problem with her level of education,” I snapped.

A flicker of impatience crossed her face. “Oh, come on, you do. Just two weeks ago, when Ajay said how he had a rule that he wouldn’t hire anyone in his company with less than a bachelor’s degree, you said, you agreed, and that someone who couldn’t even get that far was obviously without any ambition.”

My heart sank. I said thatin front of Summer? I hadn’t thought about her at all. I was just…saying shit.

A muscle twitched in my jaw. “I love Summer.”

She let out a short, humorless laugh. “Basil, you complain about herallthe time. You talk about how she doesn’tgetyour job oryou. How she doesn’t understand the pressures you face because she has a little hobby shop and?—”

“It’s not a hobby anything,” I cut her off, shame and anger warring inside me. I was ashamed that I’d been bitching about my girlfriend to my friends and angry that Drew was putting Summer down…again. “She makes a living?—”

“Please.” Drew straightened, shaking her head. “It’s obvious she has no money. Look at how she dresses?”

Where the fuck was all this coming from?

“I don’t care how she dresses,” I roared. “I care that she’s kind and generous. I care that she shows up for me. I care that she lives life to the fullest and that she makes me happy.”

Drew snorted. “Neither of you ever seemed happy when we were around.”

That was true, but I think it had more to do with the company I kept than with my relationship with Summer.

“Drew”—I looked her in the eye to get her attention—"I don’t have to justify my feelings for Summer to you.”

A flicker of impatience crossed Drew’s face. “You’re just feeling bad because you dumped her. The guilt will pass once you realize how much better off you are without her.”

“She dumped me,” I corrected Drew.

“Fine.” Her features softened with tenderness. “So, what you have is probably a bruised ego. Let it go, Basil, stop torturing yourself. Some relationships…they just don’t work out, it’s no one’s fault, it just is what it is.”

I looked at her, and for the first time in eight years, I saw something I’d never seen before:malevolence. Had it always been there?

“Summer and I are going to work it out,” I stated with feigning confidence. “We just fought. We’ll make up. We always do.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Why do you want her?”

“Like I just said earlier, I don’t have to explain my motivation to you.” Now she was pissing me off.

She moved quickly and wrapped herself around me. I was too shocked to move. “Stop this, Basil. Stop it. She’s gone. Let her go. It’s time to move on. It’s time to give us a chance.”

I looked down at the blonde hair resting against my dress shirt, my arms hanging to the sides, and I felt the punch in the gut,hard.

Did she just say it was time to give her and me a chance? Fucking hell! Was Summer right about everything?

Yes, you moron, she was!

“You saw her coming in,” I whispered. “That’s why you kissed me.”

Epiphanies were strange things that hit youwayafter the damage was done.

Drew raised her head, her eyes wide. “What?”

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