Page 116 of My UnTrue Love
Johnny looked awful. His dark hair was a wreck, like he’d been combing it with his fingers. There were circles under his eyes and his pupils were too dilated. Also, he smelled horrendous.
“Good Lord, have you been drinking?” Clem gasped. “That’s not like you. Especially not at 3 in the afternoon.”
“It’s not like you to get married to an asshole!” Johnny reiterated, as if her wedding was now an excuse for everything wrong in his life.
“Don’t call Bill names!”
Johnny ignored that. “You didn’t even tell me, before you ran off to say ‘I do’.” He shouldered his way into the apartment, not bothering to wait for an invitation. “And you knowwhyyou didn’t tell me?”
“Because it’s absolutely none of your business?” She closed the door, wishing he was still on the other side of it. She’d never been so unhappy to see anyone.
“Because you knew you’d never be able to go through with it, if you talked to me first.” His bloodshot eyes cut around the apartment, derision on his face. “You’re trying to prove a point,marrying that coyote and living in squalor. You’re trying to punish me.”
Clementine rubbed at her forehead, feeling a familiar headache forming. It was the one she’d so often developed when she’d lived with Johnny. Since she’d been with Bill, it didn’t appear at all. “Why are you here? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I think you should go.”
“Clem, don’t you see what’s happening?”
“I see that you’ve shown up at my house, uninvited anddrunk, and insulted my husband. I want you to go.”
“I’m not drunk and he’s not your husband. I am!”
Her hand dropped from her head in astonishment, not even knowing how to respond to that lunacy.
Johnny took her stunned silence as an opening for more madness. “I was thinking about it all last night and finally inspiration struck! You and me? We’re True Loves.”
Clementine blinked. “I’m going to pour you some coffee to sober you up.” She decided. “Then, youreallyneed to go.”
“I’m serious.” He laid a palm against his chest, his face a little crazed. “Coyotes steal True Loves. Everybody knows it. Bill sensed you were mine and that’s why he targeted you.”
“Bill did not ‘target me’ and you and I are not True Loves.” She grabbed the coffee pot in disgust. The coffee in it was cold, but it would do just fine. “This behavior is inexcusable. In all the time I lived with you, I never saw you like this. Youneverdrank to excess.”
“I haven’t been drinking.”
Clem didn’t believe him. “What in the world’s gotten into you lately?” Or maybe he’d always been like this, like Hank said. Maybe Clem was the idiot for not noticing Johnny’s idiocy for so long.
“You’re the one who’d changed. Not me. We were each other’s first loves, and you just threw me away!”
“You dumpedme, years ago. And we were never in love.” Now that she’d found Bill, her childhood romance with Johnny seemed downright bland.
“We only went our separate ways in college, because we had to grow as people.” Johnny argued, following her into the kitchen area. “We were fated to come back together. Two perfectly-matched souls reunited. But then Bill ruined it all.” He paused by the stove and scowled. “Are you makinghimchicken and dumplings? That’smyfavorite!”
“Since when? You never once told me that you liked my cooking.”
“Sure I did. I told you all the time.”
Clem refused to acknowledge that lie. Johnny was just making up stories to fit his inebriated narrative. She sloshed coffee into the purple tarantula mug for him. “How is it Bill’s fault that you fired me from the band?”
“He manipulated everything. I don’t know how he did it exactly, but thenIdon’t have the mind of a devious animal.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Johnny, I did my best not to discard our entire relationship, but we’ve reached the point of no return. I can’t do this anymore. I am not going to be friends with a bigot. I’m just not.”
“That’s exactly what Bill wants. To drive us apart. Rosalee did the same. It’s part of the reason I fired her.”
Clem’s jaw dropped at that news, momentarily distracted. “Fired her? You said Rosalee was the only one who understood your new sophisticated vision.”
He shook his head, his eyes darting around. “She nevergotme, ya know? Not like you do. She and Bill were jealous of our bond and they tried to ruin it.”
“Youruined it.” Clementine corrected. “Firing Rosalee was very shortsighted.”
