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“Charlie, you know I believe you about Lauren. She’s been off since we all went to college. I’m glad you’re finally seeing her for what she is, but what I don’t get is how breaking it off with her led to this. Sure, maybe a truce between you two, but this is … this is better than before you fought.”
“Because it’s Violet. She’s forgiving and understanding. She decided to stay with me because she wanted to work on it too.”
“Yes, Violet is understanding, but she’s held whatever it was you two fought about over your head for years.”
“It was the paper.”
“The mysterious paper she would never talk about?”
Charlie sighed. He hated thinking about the damn paper that had ruined their friendship for years, but he had to.
“Yes, that one. You remember how Lauren would borrow my laptop?”
“Because you had a Mac or something?”
“Yes, exactly. She wanted to look like she had more money than she did. Anyways, she borrowed it and saw I was helping Violet with a rough draft of a paper … a college thing, right before we graduated. And this paper was important to Violet. So, Lauren saw it and put cruel comments on it, and I sent it, thinking I had made a few completely normal ones.”
“That was it? That was the whole reason you fought? You said you never knew what caused it.”
“I didn’t because I thought I had said she needed to tighten her thesis and that’s it. But Lauren had called her a waste of everyone’s time - that she was a disappointment and should go teach middle schoolers. And Violet thought I said that and stuck with it for six years.”
“And Lauren never said anything?”
“Only that Violet was too sensitive to take criticism.”
“Holy shit, dude. That’s … that’s bad, but why didn’t you ask Liv to talk to Violet?”
“Lauren said I didn’t need to.”
“Why didn’t Violet tell Liv?”
“Because she was hurt by what I said. A lot. And it was for something that was important to her at the time, something she told no one she was doing.”
“Oh my God, I told you Lauren was a bad influence. She’s been like this ever since we stepped foot into college.”
“I know, and you can imagine how pissed I am at her,” Charlie said. “Violet and I not talking was our fault, yes. But she still lied and egged it on for years. I wasn’t going back to her after that.”
“I hear you, Charlie, but she’s literally a lawyer for a reason. She’s done shitty things, but then she catches you alone and talks you out of your own feelings. How do you know that won’t happen again?”
“She already tried. The night of your wedding. The night I broke it off.”
“So, you didn’t listen to her? Did that finally work?”
“No, Violet stopped me. She’s a middle school teacher - she knows bullshit when she sees it. So, when Lauren tried to manipulate me, she called it out, and that was all I needed. Violet is … way smarter than I ever gave her credit for.”
Lewis stared at him for a second.
“What?” He asked.
“You called her smart.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“You have a … thing for smart woman. As in you tend to fall in love with them.”
Oh, fuck. Of course Lewis would call him out on that.
“Okay, maybe that’s true.”
