Page 79 of Just Another Meet Cute
“Yeah, it wasn’t my argument.” I stopped and frowned a bit. “Well, Ididstart it, but it was mainly between them. It’s … a long story.”
He flashed me a brief smile. “You always say that about your family.”
“Because nothing’s ever simple with them.”
“Nothing is ever simple with anyone,” Ian pointed out with a raised brow. “Come on, how bad can it be?”
“You’d be surprised.” Not sure if I wanted to prove him wrong, or if I was just dying to talk someone—anyone—about what happened, but I ended up blurting out everything. Including the conversation with Mom and how she lied to everyone. I gave him an expectant look when I was done. “Well?”
He scrunched up his face and finally nodded. “Okay, that’s pretty bad. Like almost K-drama type of bad. At least there’s no shocking birth secret. What are you going to do?”
I poked at the pile of potatoes left on my plate. “What do you mean? I’m just here to eat my free steak.”
“First, your other steak was free. This one isn’t. We’re not running a charity here. And second, there’s tons of stuff you can do. First, you can forgive your mom, but that’s a given.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re you,” he said like that was enough of an explanation. He took the fork from me so I would stop stabbing the potato lumps. “And there’s tons you can do about your dad.Withyour dad, now that you know the truth.”
“Well, technically he still left his other family—”
“But you don’t know why. Maybe there’s an explanation for that, too. You won’t know until you ask him. And that means that you need to talk to him first.”
I grimaced. Ian was right, but hearing the words out loud didn’t make it easier. Sure, all the reasons for avoiding Dad were gone now. And I didn’t know why he got divorced. Just like I was in the dark about how he didn’t abandonus. And I knew that after the way everyone in our family treated him all these years, how I treated him, I was obligated to try to make it up to him now.
If only it were so simple. I’ve avoided him for so long, I didn’t even know what to say or what to do anymore. And after being angry for two years, I couldn’t switch my feelings that easily.
“I’ve kept him at a distance for so long that I don’t even know how to start. It’s weird.”
Ian gave me a smile so gentle that I almost forgot what we were talking about. “You can start with some ice cream.”
“Ice cream?”
“Yeah. Get a scoop of ice cream with him and see where it goes.”
Sigh.“Fine, I’ll try,” I finally said. “Now you have to tell me a family secret.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s how we do things. I tell you something, and then you tell me something. It has to be good though.”
He looked amused and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t remember ever making this deal.”
I poked his arm repeatedly. “Come on. Come onnn …”
Swatting my hand away, Ian rubbed his forearm. “Fine. Let me think of something.”
A couple of minutes went by and he still didn’t say anything. Since I wasn’t wearing a watch, I pointed at my bare wrist, and Ian sighed loudly. When about five minutes had passed, I leaned forward to poke him again, but he grabbed my finger with his hand so I couldn’t move.
“Fine, this is kind of stupid, but has Ryan ever told you about his ex-girlfriend?”
“Liv? Sort of.”
Ian chewed on his lower lip. “Well, she broke up with him because of me.”
I jerked backward so suddenly that my chair almost knocked over. I barely noticed though. All I could do was blink at him. “What?!”
His hands rose like he was defending himself. “Shit, nothing likethat. I would never do anything like that to Ryan.” He raked his hand through his hair. “One day she found me at his locker before lunch. I was borrowing his history book because I left mine at home. She must have thought I was Ryan, because she grabbed my arm and kissed me.”
