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“No. I’m not," she said, shaking her head. “I’m helping a student, that’s all.”
“I’m worried. Like, really worried. I never should have suggested you stay with him. You’ve been so distant this last week. You didn’t even reach out.”
“Didn’t Charlie tell you I had a bad week?”
“I … I didn’t think he was telling the truth.”
“Well, he was.” Violet tried not to get irritated. Liv hadn’t seen the new side of him, after all. “Last week was a dumpster fire. No, a hot mess inside of a dumpster fire in hell.”
“What happened?”
“School, mostly. I have a student who’s acting out. I’ve been trying to help him, but when I went to his mom about it, she blew up on me. Then other teachers kept getting sick, so I was working with double the kids because of the lack of subs in the area.” Violet cringed thinking about it. “I was barely a person last week.”
“It must have been awful if it got you to admit it was bad.”
“It wasn’t great. Every time I thought about explaining the last few weeks to you I … I didn’t have the energy. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I get it. But I’m worried the reason you don’t have energy is because you decided to stay with Charlie. I know you guys were lying about being friends for the wedding, and I’m worried both of you have some weird bet going on to see who snaps first.”
“It’s not like that.”
“I mean, can you blame me for thinking it?”
“No,” Violet admitted quietly. “I can’t, but Liv, I’m not acting. Charlie and I being in the same house made us talk. We had to work out our shit or else were going to kill each other. So, we did.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were on your honeymoon. I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t let you enjoy your own honeymoon.”
“Okay … fair. But now I need to know what’s going on. Please tell me what happened.”
Violet took a deep breath. “It was rough at first, but we struck a deal that I’d fix some of his house and he wouldn’t hold me staying there against me, so it evened the playing field. We both agreed to keep peace while I stayed.”
“And it’s worked?”
“The peace keeping? Yeah, it mostly did. I mean, there was an incident with a cat on the roof - that was pretty bad, but we kept the cat.”
“What? Charlie has a cat?” Liv asked, shocked.
“Yeah, you probably didn’t see her because you came in yelling.” Violet opened her phone and showed Liv one of many photos of Roo.
Liv’s face softened. “She’s adorable.”
“Right? And she only sleeps with me, which is an added bonus of staying with Charlie.”
“Speaking of Charlie, how did you know I came in mad at him?”
“He told me the same day.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, he told me everything.” Violet leaned back in her seat. “I know you were worried, but you could have asked him.”
“Y-you’re defending him? You?”
“Yeah.” Violet blushed but kept her gaze firm on Liv. “I know I used to fight with him, but both of us know I wasn’t right for that. I’m glad you care enough about me to worry, but you could have called him. He would have explained on the phone.”
“I expected him to deny it. Or get defensive. Like he always does when anyone mentions you.”
