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That shut me up. Boone was history, so I shouldn’t care.
“Now that you’re listening, let me tell you something,” she continued. “I’m good at my job. Wanna know why?”
I shrugged rather than ask if it was because she didn’t mind being critical of everybody.
“Because I’m a good judge of people. And I can tell you that Boone Benson is not the shit you think he is. He’s good people. Almost as good as my Dirk.”
I took in a deep breath, prepared to argue.
She pointed a finger at me. “And this policy of yours sucks.”
“What policy?” I shot back.
“Marge told me about your one-strike-and-you’re-out way of judging people. Keep going like that, and you’re going to be disappointed by everyone in your life.
“I’m not like that.” I sighed. I’d wanted to avoid any discussion of Boone, and here I was defending myself again.
She raised an eyebrow. “So when you broke up, it’s because you talked it out and neither of you could move far enough in the other’s direction to make it work?”
I shook my head and looked at the ground. “You don’t understand.”
“And neither do you if you walk out at the first mistake he makes. Should he have accused you of something based on what that idiot Devlin said? Of course not. But it wasn’t right for you to walk out at the first thing he said that hurt you.”
“He called me a liar,” I shot back. “He said I ruined his life, cost him a career.”
“Are you really going to insist that you’ve never jumped to a wrong conclusion, or said something you regret?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It never is,” she agreed. “There’s a saying. It’s not how long you live, but how fully you live. My Dirk isn’t perfect, but we have a damned good marriage. Know why?”
Really? A Hallmark saying?“No.” I wasn’t getting out of this without a lecture.
“Because we both work at it, and we work on things together. We both make mistakes, but we move on. Hell, he’s not perfect, and God knows I’m not either. How many years did you work at it with Kevin before giving up?”
I cocked my head. “Too many.” The less I said the sooner this would be over.
“Was Kevin perfect all the time?”
“Pfft…” I swallowed my laugh. “Of course not.”
“From what I’m understanding, Kevin was far from perfect—not even a real partner you could depend on for anything. Yet you tried with him for five years.” She’d hadn’t needed to ask how long. “Why is it you won’t give Boone even one tenth of that chance? Not everyone is abusive. Sometimes people just make mistakes.”
She wouldn’t understand, so I didn’t try. I just shook my head.
“Why?” she repeated.
“He thinks I… Exactly what he thinks doesn’t matter.” Laying out our history wouldn’t help. “He doesn’t trust me.”
“So he said something that hurt you.”
Duh.I nodded.
“And you walked away without even trying to talk it out.”
I wasn’t arguing this point. I’d decided what I wanted, and that was to leave. “What he said was crystal clear. There isn’t anything to talk about.
“That’s chickenshit.”
