“I didn’t fuck up like that.”
“How?”
“I told Liz I love her.” I don’t tell her that I held her down to tell her, then forced her to say it back, then told her she is going to marry me.
“So? She loves you; what’s the big deal?”
“How do you know?” I sit up, waiting for her to tell me how she knows. I never wanted Liz to tell me she loved me until she was ready. I didn’t want to force her, but that’s exactly what I did, held her down and forced her to tell me.
“She told me,” November says in a duh-tone, the same one she uses with all of us boys when she thinks were being stupid.
“Why would she tell you and not me?” Now, I'm pissed that she’s felt the same way I have and has never said anything, while I’ve been stewing over this for the last few weeks.
“She wanted to make sure you were both in the same place before she told you.”
“Jesus, why do women do that? Why do you guys think that you know what we’re thinking?”
“You’re a guy; you think about sex and sports. It’s not hard to figure out.” She laughs right before I hear a loud smack. “Asher,” she says, then I hear the phone go quite, and a loud moan. I hang up before I can hear anything else. Listening to my brother have sex with someone who I consider a sister is never going to happen. I lay back on the bed, closing my eyes.
I wake to the sound of someone banging on the door. I look over at the clock; I’ve been asleep for about two hours. “Coming!” I yell. I don’t even look to see who it is; I just open the door, still half asleep. I’m caught off guard when I’m slammed into the wall by my neck.
“What the fuck are you doing with my sister?” Tim asks, his arm planted in my throat. I use my free arm to swing over, switching our positions. He’s not expecting the move, judging by the way his body slams into the door.
“Listen to me, you piece of shit,” I growl, my hand going around his throat. “I love her, and that’s more than I can say for you, the one who had the nerve to steal her money, forcing her to take a second job that just so happened to be working at a fucking strip club.” I’m so pissed, I can feel my blood rushing through my veins.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he coughs out when I loosen the hand around his neck.
“I don’t know what I’m talking about? I’m the one she cries to,” I retighten my hold around his neck. “Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“I didn’t have a choice. I need the money. I found out that Kara was pregnant and had to pay off some debts.”
“So you stole from your family?”
“You don’t have a kid on the way; you don’t understand.” I shove away from him, walking into the room.
“You’re right. I don’t have a kid on the way. But I’ve got a girl and a family, no way I’d put either of them in the middle of my shit.”
“Oh, the great Trevor Mayson is all of a sudden better than everyone.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“Oh, but doesn’t everyone know about you?”
“Did you really come find me to talk about this shit?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. My blood is boiling. If it wasn’t for my promise to Liz, his ass would be hanging over the balcony.
“I want to know what you’re doing with my sister.”
“You don’t get to ask that; you don’t get to play the role of the big brother.”
“I love my mom and sister. You may not believe me, but I do.”
“Prove it. Come back to town and earn back the money you owe her.”
“I have Kara. I—“
I take a step towards him, cutting him off. “That’s your choice; but I’m telling you now, if you push me, I will insist that Liz press charges.”
“I can’t come back to town right now. I’m working undercover.”
I shake my head in disgust. “That lie might work on your mom, but it’s not working on me. “
“Fuck you,” he shouts, his face turning red.
“How long are you going to keep that lie up for?”
“It’s not a lie. The people I owed money to trusted me. The cops had no one on the inside, and when they found out about my debt, they offered to pay it off in exchange for me going undercover.”
“If they paid off your debt, why did you take the money from your sister?”
“The money I took from her paid the debt; the money the cops gave me paid my interest.” I watched him start to pace, his hands running through his shaggy blonde hair. “I had been seeing Kara for a while when she told me she was pregnant.” He stops, his eyes meeting mine. “This was around the time that I lost my last bet. I knew I needed to get out from under the people I owed; no way was I going to have a kid and have to look over my shoulder.”
“So you took the money, started working for the cops, asked Kara to marry you, and went on your merry way. All the while, your sister is staying in the back room of her store after losing her apartment, working for Mike so that she doesn’t lose her dream, and you’re living it up, not wondering about the damage you left behind?”
“If you’re with her, then why the fuck was she working at a fucking strip club?” he yells.
“Me working for Mike had nothing to do with Trevor,” Liz says, walking into the room. She sets her bag down on the bed, coming to my side. Her arm goes around the back of my waist.
“How—”
My girl must not be in the mood to listen. “You need to leave, Tim.”
“What?” Tim asks, looking at me. Wrong person. I would always side with Liz; even if I liked him, I would still side with her.