Page 145 of For the Boys
Wasn’t that exactly what she had accused him of after her law school ball? That even when things were supposed to be about her, he became the center of attention?
God, he’d been so stupid. He reallywasan idiot.
He couldn’t, wouldn’t, do that to her. Not again. Never again.
“Pamela,” he said, turning to find the woman standing several feet away. “Call it off.”
“Call what off?”
“My speech. Forget about it. I’m sorry, but this was a mistake.”
Pamela’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Oh thank God. We were going to be cutting it so close on time as it was. Now I can breathe again.”
Brent laughed. “I’m so sorry I stressed you out.”
“It’s fine,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “Are you going out there to watch?”
“And cause an uproar when people recognize me? No, I’ll stay back here. If that’s okay?”
“Sure thing,” she said, indicating a chair he could pull up on the wings of the stage.
And so, Brent settled in to watch his girl graduate law school.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Berkley
The second Brent had walked out the door two weeks before, Berkley broke down. When Lexie had called moments later, asking where she and Brent had gone, Berkley could do nothing but sob into the phone. Lexie had arrived fifteen minutes later and held her all night while she cried.
It had been her decision to end things with him, and she knew it was the right one, but the knowledge didn’t make it hurt any less.
And so that Monday, two days after telling Brent it was over between them, she hadn’t even bothered to get out of bed. Shutting her phone off, she had gathered all of the sad, sappy, cheesy romance movies she could find and watched them on a loop, alternately crying and blankly staring at the television screen, numb. Lexie, Mitch, Amelia, Harper, and even Reece had stopped by at regular intervals to check on her, not that she let anyone but Lexie in.
Tuesday, she’d eaten her weight in chocolate and was drunk on red wine before noon.
Wednesday, she had finally turned her phone on. She had texts and voicemails from her parents, siblings, Kimber—who someone had apparently called to relay the news—and of course, Brent.
“Berkley, I’m so sorry…” was all she could bear to listen to in the voicemail from him—he was slurring his words badly—before she had chucked her phone across the room, where it shattered against the wall. When Lexie had come by that afternoon, she’d glanced from Berkley to the broken phone on the floor before bodily removing Berkley from the couch and throwing her in the shower, fully clothed.
“Snap out of it!” Lexie yelled. “I love you, and I know you care about him a lot, but it’s been days! You either have to stop moping and move on, or you have to fight to fix this! You have shit to do tomorrow, and you have to graduate from law school next weekend! You can’t live forever on Dove chocolates and that cheap-ass red wine you’ve been drinking.”
Berkley sat pathetically under the spray. “I know,” she mumbled.
“Have you talked to him?” Lexie asked.
“No,” Berkley said, finally attempting to free herself from her sweatshirt, the soaked material heavy and clinging to her like a second skin. “I tried to listen to a voicemail, but it ended with me breaking my phone against the wall.”
“Have you talked to anyone besides me? I know Ames and Kimber are really worried about you.”
“Ames, Mitch, Harper, and Reece have all stopped by but I yelled at them to go away. I can’t face anyone right now. I’m too embarrassed.”
“Why?” Lexie sat on the toilet seat. Berkley had finally peeled off all her clothing and began to wash her hair.
“Six months, completely wasted,” she said quietly.
“You don’t know that.”
“Lexie, I tried so hard to make him happy with me, to understand where I was coming from, and he just blew it off every time, like what I was saying didn’t matter. How can I be with someone who refuses to see things from my side? Who refuses to compromise?”
