“You just have to understand that this whole thing has been really painful, and it’s not helping having you come by and telling me how happy Cole used to be when we were together. If that’s the case, why would he break up with me in the first place? Why wouldn’t he come over and ask me to get back together?”
“Because he can be stubborn and impulsive,” Ben said. “Sometimes at the same time. No one’s perfect. Cole’s pretty close, but everyone’s got to have their faults, right?”
“Of course,” I said. “I certainly have plenty of my own. I guess I just don’t understand why you’re coming over here to tell me this. What’s the point? He broke up with me, and I’m trying to get over it, which is a lot easier said than done.”
“I know it is,” Ben said. “It sucks, getting broken up with. Believe it or not, I have been broken up with a few times myself, and it’s not something that I particularly look forward to. Getting rejected by you was bad enough, and we weren’t even going out.” He smiled, though I was wondering how much of what he just said was actually true.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. But you guys shouldn’t have made a stupid bet like that.”
“Ah, yes, the bet. Shit, that seems like years ago; hard to believe it was just the beginning of summer.”
“It does seem like a long time ago,” I said.
“And it was stupid of us. But that’s what guys do, right? Guys do stupid shit sometimes, and hopefully, girls like them for it. Or at least get a little amusement from it.”
“I’m somehow not finding anything about this current situation amusing.”
“Maybe it was stupid to make a bet like that. I kind of like to think, though, that if we hadn’t, maybe you and Cole wouldn’t have gotten together in the first place.”
“That might’ve been better,” I said. “Spared me all of this heartache.” Ben could think whatever he wanted, but I was pretty sure that Cole and I would have hooked up regardless of whether or not there had been any bet. Maybe it would have taken longer, but it would’ve happened. “He was my doctor, you know,” I said. Ben looked at me in surprise. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You probably know already.”
“No, I didn’t. He wouldn’t tell me something like that.”
“Obviously, I’m not going to continue to have him as my doctor. And I’m not planning to go talk with him. Yes, I’d like some closure on it, but really, I got closure. He ended the relationship. I wasn’t the one who initiated the breakup in the first place. So I’m sorry, but I think you wasted your time riding over here. I mean, can you give me one good reason why I should go talk to him about this?”
“He deserves it,” Ben said quietly. “He deserves someone like you. I don’t even know you that well, but I can tell that you’re a good person, and you’re hot as hell—if you don’t mind me saying—and the two of you make a great pair. And if anyone deserves to be with someone like you, it’s Cole.”
“Is that so,” I said. “And would you care to let me know why he’s so deserving of this? I mean, I get that he’s successful and good-looking, but so what? Plenty of people are, and that doesn’t mean that they’re somehow more deserving than someone else to be in a relationship.”
“It’s not that,” Ben said.
“Then what is it?”
He paused. “I don’t... I don’t know if I should tell you.”
I looked at him closely. “Well now you have to tell me. You can’t just say that and now not tell me.”
The two of us stood there for several moments of silence. I could see him wrestling with whatever it was that he wanted to say but felt like he couldn’t. What the hell was going on?
“Let’s just say that Cole has done some things in his life that most people never would do.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m not going to even begin to tell you how ambiguous that is. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
Ben bit his lip. “Okay,” he said. “B
ut what I’m about to tell you needs to stay between us, okay? I have never told anyone this before, never spoken of it, and the only reason I’m doing so now is because I trust that you’re going to do the right thing with what I’m about to tell you. And that is not say anything.”
“I am so confused about everything at this point, I highly doubt there’s anything you could tell me that would make things worse.”
He paused again, and I tried to conjure up whatever it was he was going to tell me. Cole had a terminal illness? He was really a woman? (except I knew he wasn’t.) Those were the only two things I could come up with: that Cole was either dying of cancer or he’d had a sex change operation. I held my hands up.
“Just tell me,” I said.
“Declan’s not his son,” Ben said.
“What? What are you talking about? Of course he is.”
But Ben was shaking his head. “No, he’s not. Well, not biologically. Declan is technically Cole’s... nephew. Declan’s mother is Cole’s sister, Marissa.”