Page 87 of My Infatuation with Isabella

“Shit, what she did to your car was insane.” Peter laughs, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “And that is precisely the reason why I don’t do relationships. Women ruin you. Emotionally, mentally...financially. Just look at you and Scott. Both of you are worse off because of the women in your lives. Scott gave up everything for Cat and had to move in with me. Dyl, you let Francesca keep the house and...had to move in with me. They cripple you. No way will I ever let a woman get near me or my money. Never gonna happen to me.”

“Until it does,” I warn.

We arrive at the basketball court and hop out of the car.

“The only woman I’m making an exception for is Mrs. Diaz,” Peter continues. “She’s amazing.”

“It’s Mrs. Hart now,” Keith corrects wryly, and he says it with the kind of disinterest that tells me he’s said that a thousand times.

Peter has always made inappropriate comments like that about Mrs. Hart. No one knows if he genuinely has a crush on her or if he just says things to make everyone uncomfortable. Whichever one it is, Keith is not perturbed in the slightest.

“Dylan, as my long-lost, prodigal adopted son, I think you should be on my team,” Keith says, tossing the ball to me.

“Take a lesson from Scott and me,” I say playfully, dribbling the ball. “No one will ruin you more than a Diaz woman. Let her be Keith’s problem.”

“Yeah, let her be my problem,” Keith concurs. “Don’t want her getting her hands on all that money you didn’t earn.”

Peter snatches the ball from me and throws it to Scott. “You know, almost everyone assumes that I live off my parent’s money...and I let them, but I’m very wealthy in my own right.”

Keith raises a skeptical brow. “And what exactly do you do to earn your wealth?”

“Pete plays the stock market,” Scott offers, shooting a shot that ricochets off the hoop. “We started investing when we were twelve. I had to use my savings on college and living expenses, but Pete’s portfolio is insane now. He’s got redeemable preference shares and debentures and he’s diversified in all different industries. He invested in Bitcoin and bought stock in Tesla, then he took those gains and bought about four or five beachfront properties, which he rents out. Pete is the king of passive income.”

“He earns more than both of us combined,” I add. “From the beginning of last year – I think it was – Scott and I started giving him all our savings to invest for us because he just knows how to read the market. He’s also the only one who knows how derivatives and hybrid instruments work. Swaps, options, swaptions – I don’t know what any of that shit is. All I know is that Pete will make me money from it.”

Keith wipes sweat from his brow and nods. “So, you’re not as dumb as you look?”

“Nope,” he answers, huffing as we run across the court. “Which is why I stay away from relationships. Derivatives and hybrid instruments I understand, but women and relationships – they’re far more complicated and they don’t come with nearly as many benefits.”

A loud laugh bursts out of Keith. “I bet your cynical ass is gonna fall harder than both of them.”

“I’m never falling in love,” Pete states adamantly. “I tried it once, but then she ended up leaving me for some hotshot lawyer who isn’t even half as good-looking as me. I’m just too scared to put my heart out like that again.”

That gets a laugh from all of us, and Keith turns to me. “And you? You think you’re ready for another relationship again?”

“Yes, sir. I do.”

“I gotta say I’m very wary about you. You’re unreliable. You disappear without a word and...and you were married for a very short time, so I don’t think you know what commitment really means.” He shrugs. “My daughter is tough, but what you’ve done to her...”

He leaves the rest of his sentence hanging with his skepticism. I understand why he’s so overprotective and try to allay his doubts. I even call a timeout on the game to properly address his concerns. “Keith, I won’t hurt her again. I’m not gonna disappear. And as far as commitment...I took a whole year to work through all my confusion and guilt and...a lot of other stuff, and I thought long and hard about what I really wanted. This is what I want. After everything she’s been through,I’vebeen through, I wouldn’t pursue this if it wasn’t something I was a hundred percent sure about.”

That seems to settle Keith a bit, but Peter groans. “Dyl, I can’t believe you are going from one relationship to another with no one else in between. Do you know how many hot women I see flirt with you at the restaurant and you do nothing! Aren’t you even the least bit curious to know what it’s like to...fuck around a bit?”

“I don’t need to sleep with a hundred women to know that I want to be with one.”

Scott chuckles. “You heard the guy, Pete. He doesn’t want anyone else. Just accept defeat and hand over the keys.”

I look between the two of them. “Wait. Is that bet about me?”

“We’re not allowed to reveal the finer details in case we skew the outcome,” is Scott’s vague reply. He’s more than amused when he turns to Keith. “And don’t you worry about my boy. He is laid-out, pussy-whipped, off-the-charts in love with Isabella. And you wanna know how he fell in love so quickly this time around? Because he never fell out of it, but you won’t admit that, right Dyl?. Because that would mean I was right all along.”

His gloating makes me so mad sometimes. “Why are you even talking about me and Isabella? Isn’t that breaking the pact? Just shut up and play.”

We play three games and we’re hot and sweating when we finally make our way off the court and back to Peter’s car. Mrs. Hart has lunch ready by the time we walk through the front door. Playing basketball has worked up our appetites because we devour everything in sight.

After lunch, Peter and Scott decide to go shopping for new surfboards, but I decline because I have other plans for this afternoon. I drive back to Pete’s condo, but I don’t even wait to get out of the car to video call Bella again. Since she cheated me with date one, I’m hoping she’ll slide on her one date a week rule and let me take her out tonight.

She’s a little breathless when she answers the phone. “Hi,” she murmurs.

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