Page 58 of Fall Into You
He examines my hand and asks my mom what she used. She answers, but he shakes his head, telling her he needs bacitracin before he can wrap it up. She hands him the first-aid kit, and he rummages through its contents until he finds whatever it is he’s looking for.
“Danielle and I are going to give the twins baths. Right, Danielle?” my mother says.
Danielle looks at her husband with furrowed brows. She looks like the last thing she wants to do is leave him in his current state, and I marvel at how much we all underestimate the love they share for each other. Just because Vinny and Danielle bicker does not mean that they don’t support and care for each other, that they’re not partners. She’s looking at his right hand, and I notice for the first time that Vinny’s knuckles are red and swollen.
Jesus.
“Danielle,” my mother says with a slight edge in her voice. Mymammawants her kids to solve their issues, and right now that takes priority for her.
Dani reluctantly takes her children upstairs, throwing Vinny one last longing look in his direction, but he doesn’t notice. He’s too busy putting on gloves to place the ointment on my hand. He spreads it carefully on the cut with the concentration of someone performing heart surgery. We both know we need to talk, but neither of us knows where to begin.
Screw it.
“He’s a good guy, you know. Good for me,” I say softly, trying really hard not to get defensive or raise my voice. The key here is to keep calm, show Vinny that this isn’t a whim and that we’ve taken this seriously.
Vinny scoffs and shakes his head, keeping his eyes on my wound. He opens his mouth and starts to say something but stops himself, removing the gloves with a snap.
“What? What were you going to say?”
“You really don’t get it, do you? It’s not just about the fact that he was a total player in college, and I don’t want him to treat you that way.” I start to interrupt him, but he holds a hand up to me and keeps going. “It’s also about the fact that I specifically asked him not to do something, and he did it anyway. He lied to me—you both did—and he betrayed my trust. I basically lost my only friend today, and I’m…I’m hurt and pissed that you took him from me, and he preferred you over me.”
My jaw drops, and I stare at him, wide-eyed, as he opens up a gauze package. I see Vinny flush in embarrassment at his admission.
“What are you talking about? Your only friend? You havetonsof friends.”
Vinny sighs and sits back a little, hesitating to meet my eye. “Liza, they’re…colleagues. I don’t know. The only people I know in the city nowadays are people I went to school with and never left the city. We graduated, and it’s like everyone flipped a switch. Or maybe we were all pretending to be friends in school, and now we just use our past relationships for networking, you know?
“I guess because Matt left, he never transitioned from friend to colleague or peer. It kind of froze that relationship, and at the same time, it became something different because we’re older. I don’t fucking know.” He sighs. “Whatever, he’s a dick who went against what I asked him to, and now I have to find a new friend.” He places the gauze directly on the gash and then wraps it snugly around my hand.
“Thanks,” I mutter. I didn’t realize that my brother had the emotional ability to express—let alone feel—everything he just told me. It’s… kind of cute that this is mostly about friendship and not all about his delusional sense of being the “head of the family.”
“But why are you being so dramatic about this? Matt loves you. He hated lying to you. This is all my fault,” I say. I don’t know if this will make things worse between my brother and me, but I know I owe them both the chance to be able to fix their friendship.
Men are much more sensitive than I thought they could be.
“I can’t be friends with a guy who’s fucking you.” He grimaces. “And Idefinitelycan’t be friends with him after he dumps you.”
I sit back on the couch like someone’s pushed me. He said it so matter-of-factly, like it’s the most given thing that has ever existed in the world. “Excuse me? Why are you so sure he’s going to dump me?”
“Come on, Liza.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Don’t make me say it.”
“What do you mean, Vinny?” I ask again, my voice sounding like venom now. I’m not letting him off easy here.
“You know,” he says nervously now.
“Obviously not, since I’m still asking.” I’m not going to back down until he clarifies what he meant. I know it won’t be good, but I need to know exactly why he thinks our relationship is going to fail. It’s somewhat perverse, but I have to know.
“Because of how the both of you are in relationships.” He shrugs like he didn’t just sound like an absolute ass. “I just mean that he’s going to get bored after two weeks, like he always has, and you don’t really ever get attached to anyone. You basically didn’t give a shit about Jeremy breaking up with you, and you wereengagedto him. The only reason you were pissed is because he cheated on you.”
I scoff and get up from the couch. “Are you kidding me? Thanks for thinking so highly of your sister that you think Matt would only be able to stay with me for two weeks—”
“Come on, that’s not what I meant, and you know—”
“For your information, we’ve been together for about six weeks, and I am deeply in love with Matt.”
He stops and gets up from the table as well. “Six weeks, Liza? Are you fucking kidding me? You’ve been lying to me forsix fucking weeks?”
I recoil and take a step away from him. I think he just grew a foot taller. “I—I thought you justassumed. I mean, it kind of started when he came here in—”
