Chapter Twenty

Olive

Pierce and I sat eating dinner at the dining table quietly. We’d come to an understanding in our relationship, where we were peacefully coexisting. He hadn’t asked me any more questions about Cormac or when I was leaving, and I could tell that he had assumed I was leaving soon.

Even though I didn’t want to leave Brunswick so soon, I wondered if I had any other choice. Pierce was right. The longer I stayed here, the longer I would be pining for Cormac. And if I saw him again, I knew exactly how it was going to play out.

We’d have quick sex, and then he’d leave. That was the pattern of our relationship, and as much as I was attracted to him, and as much as I wanted to reexperience sleeping with him again, getting my heart broken over it was not worth it.

So, I ate my dinner in silence and wondered if there was any hope of one last time. If I could see him one last time and just confess my feelings to him. Tell him how much the song meant to me. I could just tell him that I expected nothing from him, and that I just wanted to say goodbye.

I clanked my fork down on my plate, and Pierce looked up at me.

“I think I’m going to go out,” I said in a quiet voice. I knew he’d know exactly where I wanted to go. Pierce dabbed the sides of his mouth with a napkin and then took in a deep breath. I was expecting another lecture. I was expecting him to bring up the subject of moving back to Venice as soon as possible.

“You’ll probably find him at Balthazar’s,” he said, naming the bar I’d performed at the previous night. I stood up from my chair, amazed at how calm Pierce was. He was accepting my decision to go look for Cormac.

“Aren’t you going to say anything else to me?” I asked him, and my brother fixed his gaze on me and shrugged. He seemed calm and mature, like he trusted me.

“I’m not going to forbid you from seeing him, if that’s what you want to do. You know how I feel, I’ve expressed my concerns—beyond that, you’re an adult who can make her own decisions,” Pierce said, and I nearly smiled. We had never had a conversation like this before, and it felt good being validated by my brother in this way. I’d spent my whole life trying to make Pierce see things in this light. To trust my decisions and respect them. For the first time in our lives, Pierce was accepting my choice. He wasn’t fighting me on them. Something had changed him and had changed him for the better, and I was grateful for it.

“Thank you, Pierce,” I said, and he went back to eating his dinner. Did this mean that he wasn’t going to stand in the way between Cormac and me anymore? I didn’t want to ask him directly; I didn’t want to step too far. If this was how much Pierce was willing to say, I was happy with it.

“Just be careful, sis,” I heard him say as I walked out of the kitchen. I could feel a skip in my step. I had planned on finding Cormac and saying my goodbyes, but with Pierce in a more accepting mood now, I wondered if that conversation could go a different way. Maybe, if Cormac was willing, we could actually talk about a relationship. Maybe I could remain in Brunswick, and we could get to know each other! My heart was thudding in my chest.

I grabbed my denim jacket off the chair before I left the house. Outside it was a cool night, and I walked toward the bar where I’d seen Cormac the previous night.

I was giddy with excitement at the prospect of seeing him again. Now that Pierce was in a more mature mood regarding our relationship, I wondered if there was some hope of having an honest conversation with Cormac. We’d both been fighting Pierce since the first moment we met, but now that Pierce was being an adult about it, maybe it would make Cormac look at our relationship differently? Hadn’t he said something about thinking about a real relationship with me?

As tempting as Pierce’s offer for sponsoring me in Venice sounded, I knew I would have dropped all plans of that if Cormac even suggested that we could give our relationship a shot. I liked Brunswick; I would have liked staying closer to Pierce too. I had more of an audience for my music here than I had in LA.

I was smiling as I walked. I was building myself up now, hoping that Cormac hadn’t changed his mind. He seemed at war with himself the previous night, but perhaps all it would take would be for me to explain to him that Pierce was not going to be a problem in our lives anymore.

I walked into the crowded bar and gazed at the musicians on stage. I stopped and imagined myself playing to the audience every night. I could get used to it. I would enjoy it.

Then I raised myself up on my toes to look over heads and see if I could spot Cormac.

The bar was dark, and I squeezed past a few people till I had a different vantage point again. I tried to look at the darker corners of the place, similar to the kind of place he’d been standing in the previous night.

Just as I’d expected, Cormac was sitting in a dark corner of the bar at a table. My first instinct was to smile when my eyes landed on him, but then the smile dropped from my face.

Cormac wasn’t sitting at the table by himself. There was someone with him.

***

This was no ordinary lady who was sitting beside Cormac at his table. She was a gorgeous, seductive woman, with a smashing body and full breasts. I could see her cleavage from where I was standing, and there was no doubt in my mind that Cormac could see it too.

They were sitting close together at the table, leaning toward each other, and I could tell from the smile on the woman’s face that they were flirting.

I felt my knees wobble. The first thought in my head was that Pierce was right. He’d been right about everything from the very beginning. Cormac was not the kind of man I should have fallen for. He was going to do nothing but break my heart.

And there he was! Flirting with a woman he had met, less than a day after we had sex. Pierce had told me that he’d lied to Cormac, saying that I had left. So, soon after he found that out, he’d been quick to go back to the bar and find his next catch! Pierce had predicted it exactly, and it was making me sick.

I didn’t even know why I was standing there, watching them. I couldn’t look away—it was like a car crash, and I wished that my body hadn’t frozen to the spot like that. Then I wouldn’t have had to watch her lean toward him and place her hand on his arm. I wouldn’t have had to see the way she whispered something in his ear.

Cormac wasn’t touching her, but he wasn’t pushing her away either. He’d been quick to push me away though, every time that we were alone together. Now, with me gone supposedly, he had wasted no time in finding someone else to fuck.

I whipped away from the scene, with my heart thudding maniacally in my chest. This time, my heart was racing for an entirely different reason. I could feel it breaking. I’d been so foolish. I’d been so stupid! I should have trusted my brother’s warnings. He always knew what was best for me.

I ran out of the bar, rethinking everything in my head, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to roll down my cheeks. I wanted to get out of there, get as far away from Cormac as was possible. Pierce was right—I should have stayed away from him all along.

I didn’t stop when I got out of the bar. Instead, I kept running down the streets, past the houses and stores. I was out of breath, and my hair was tousled in the breeze, but I wanted to keep running. I felt so foolish for even harboring the hope that things might finally work out with Cormac. He had shown his true colors to me now, when he realized that I wasn’t watching, when he thought that I wasn’t in Brunswick any more.

I burst into Pierce’s house and ran down the hallway and up the stairs. I only stopped running when I was inside my room.

I dragged my bag out of the cupboard and started flinging my clothes into it. That was when the tears gushed out. I’d held back on them for too long, and now there was nothing more to hold on to.

I sobbed into my hands as I stood over the bed, with all my clothes and stuff spread out around me. I heard the door creak when Pierce walked in.

“Olive?” I heard his voice before he strode over to me and pulled me into his open arms. I rested my forehead on his chest as I cried some more. Pierce stroked my back affectionately, and I was so glad that he was there. I would have hated to be alone tonight.

“Do you want to tell me what happened? Did he do something?” I heard him ask, and I looked up into his eyes with tears still streaming down my face.

“You were right. He’s not the kind of guy I deserve to be with,” I whimpered, and Pierce shook his head.

“No, he’s not. You deserve a loyal, decent man, and as much as I like Cormac, he’s not that guy,” my brother said and then stroked my hair. I tried to blink my tears away from my eyes.

“I saw him with another woman. He’s with someone else already. It didn’t even take him a day to find someone else,” I cried, and Pierce pulled me to his chest again and stroked my back.

“That’s just how he is, sis. I’m sorry that he’s hurt you,” I heard him say, and another burst of tears came gushing from me.

“I know you warned me, and I should have listened,” I declared, and then slowly, I pulled myself away from his arms.

“Yes, you should have,” Pierce said, but there was a warmth in his voice. I rubbed my cheeks with the backs of my hands.

“I’m going to leave for Venice tomorrow, on the first flight back,” I said and started packing my bags again.

Pierce was standing by, watching me with his hands tucked into the pockets of his pants.

“So, you’re taking me up on my offer?” he asked, and I nodded, keeping my lips pursed together. It was a good offer, the best I could hope for, and I was grateful to my brother for looking out for me.

“That’s good. That’s very good, Olive. I’ll send the money over to you tomorrow. Now, the first thing I want you to do when you get back to Venice is to get rid of that dump of a place you call home and find someplace nice. Okay? Money is not a problem. I want you to be comfortable and happy,” Pierce said and pulled me into his arms for a hug again.

We remained hugging like that for a few moments longer, and I tried to catch a breath. It was nice being in my brother’s arms. I felt safe there. I shouldn’t have fought him on this to begin with. What was I thinking? Imagining that a man like Cormac could ever want a serious real relationship with a girl like me?