Love and Truth (35 page)

“Izo, you son of a bitch. You better stop this fucking car right now!” He slammed his fist into the hood of the car.

“That fucker just dented my damn car,” Izo said. “You owe me big for this, sweet thing, because he’s going to royally kick my ass when he gets a hold of me. I’m bigger than J, but the guy’s no joke when he’s mad.”

He whipped the car back out of the drive way and we sped off. I pulled my phone out to text Emiko. I felt like crap for leaving her there, but there was no time to find her.

“So what now, Miss Bossypants? You have me in a ton of shit with my boy. Now what?” Izo’s phone started buzzing. He picked it up and looked at me with a smirk. He clicked answer.

“Izo,” he said. “Speak!” God, he even answered his phone like a prick. “No, dude. I did not…well you, my friend, are going to have to figure that out on your own.” He paused and I could hear Jonathan’s loud voice coming from the phone. “Listen, asshole. This is your fucking mess, not mine. The girl frantically begged me to get her out of there, so I did. Who am I to turn down a pretty little thing like her?” I glared at him. He was just making shit worse. “Nope, I will not. She doesn’t want to come back, man. I’m not forcing her to. Listen, you let that tramp, Leah, waltz back into your life when I told you not to. You didn’t fucking listen to your boy and you got burned. I love you man, but you fucked up on this one big time!”

Just then my phone buzzed and it was Emiko. She texted me back, saying that Jonathan kicked everyone out, saying that the party was over. But he had asked her to stay. Meanwhile, Izo was still arguing with Jonathan.

“You know what, man? I don’t really think it makes a damn bit of difference why she was there. The fact is that she was there. You were with her and your girl saw it. How long will it take you to learn, dude? Chicks don’t give a rat’s ass about why or how-all they care about is what they know and what the girl sitting next to me knows is that you were with your ex out on the beach, all cozy looking. That’s enough for her, trust me. She isn’t going to care about the details.”

Well Izo, might not be an idiot after all, because he was spot on with all of that. I certainly didn’t want to hear some crap excuse about why she was there or why he felt the need to have his arm around her.

“No, man. I don’t know. She just told me to drive. So that’s what I’m doing.” He paused. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. I’ll tell her.” He hung up and turned to me.

“He says he loves you.”

Whatever! Screw his love!
Izo looked over at me and I felt momentarily bad for getting him mixed up in this, but then he opened his mouth and the sympathy flew right out the damn window.

“So, sweetness. Where to? Are we driving all night or are we headed somewhere specific? Because now that you got me in hot water with J, the least you can do is make it worth my while.” Seriously this guy was unreal.

“Are you kidding me right now? Are you really coming on to me after I just freaked out over Jonathan and his tramp? You really have a lot of nerve. Guys are such arrogant pigs.” I was totally taking my anger out on him, but it had to go somewhere and he was a good target.

He pulled into a parking lot off to the side of the beachfront that we’d been driving along. “Listen, I’m not really hitting on you. It’s just a habit. Shit just comes out of my mouth involuntarily. You wanna get out and get some fresh air? The tension radiating off of you is seriously some scary shit, woman.”

He gave me an innocent boyish grin and suddenly he didn’t look like a big overgrown musclehead. He looked like a genuinely nice, normal guy.

“Sure, Izo. I guess some air will be good at this point.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The breeze blew in from the ocean as I sat at a picnic table on some beach in the middle of nowhere. I sat here with Izo, of all people. How did my life get here, so messed up? My guts felt like they were ripped out back there. Why did I ever let myself be this vulnerable? I could sit here and keep asking myself question after question, but there would never be a good answer. I was so blind – caught up in some fairytale vision of me with him – that I never considered that he would do something like this. Even though his excuses were pointless, I still couldn’t help wanting to know what they were.

“Why was he with Leah?” I asked Izo, who sat looking out across the water. He sighed.

“Listen, I don’t want to get in the middle of this anymore than I already am, but I hate that bitch. And trust me, I don’t call a good looking girl a bitch easily, but I know her and as pretty as she is on the outside, she’s one evil bitch on the inside. I watched her manipulate J for two years. She strung him along for so long, and he was clueless. We all knew it was going nowhere, but he wouldn’t listen. He spent tons of money on her and treated her like gold. Anything she ever asked for he did, and trust me, she was always wanting something. Greedy bitch, but J thought he was in love. God, that fucker is such a sap. It’s disgusting to witness. He was completely pussy-whipped over her.”

Ugh
. Did he have to say that word or even bring that up?

“Izo, please. No graphic details. I just want to know what she’s doing here. Why was she with him tonight? I thought she moved away.”

He hopped up off of the picnic table top.

“Come on, sweet thing. Let’s stretch our legs and talk.” He held out his hand to me. I looked at it and back at him cautiously. “Oh, come on. I don’t bite. Unless you want me to, of course.” He laughed. He was hopeless, I swear. He really couldn’t help what came out of that dirty mouth of his. I went ahead and took his hand.

“Okay, Izo, but you better be on your best behavior, Mister.” I sniffled and wiped my eyes. The tears were still leaking, little by little.
Damn him!
I couldn’t believe I was such a mess. I was in a living nightmare; I never imagined in a million years that this night would turn out like this. I walked with Izo along the beach in the warm sand, preparing to hear his explanation for why Leah was with Jonathan tonight.

“I have to say that, regardless of how much I hate that girl and how many times I told him to tell her no when she called, I know he loves you. As twisted as it may sound, I know why he couldn’t tell her no, but it still doesn’t make it okay. J’s just too damn sensitive when it comes to you chicks, even if it’s evil greedy ones that fucked him over.”

“Just tell me, Izo. What is it? Why did he see her? Spare me the ‘he loves me’ stuff because if he loved me, he wouldn’t have been out on the beach with her in his arms, no matter what it is she’s manipulating him with.”

“Her mom transferred back out here. They’re stationed over on Kadena. Her mom is in the service and so was her dad. Her dad was killed two months ago in Afghanistan.” I stopped in my tracks and looked at him stunned.

“What?”

“Yeah, so you see why he didn’t say no. She knew it, too. I mean, I feel sorry for her losing her dad. I’m not that cold-hearted, but I know her and she used it to get close to him again. She hates this island and having to live here. She knows J accommodated all of her whiny bullshit last time for years, so I’m thinking she thought she could weasel her way back into his good graces by playing the sympathy card.”

This just kept getting worse. The rabbit-hole kept getting deeper and more ridiculously unbelievable. What were the odds?

“So, of course, Jonathan sympathizes with her because his father died the same way, you know?”

“Is tonight the first time they’ve seen each other since she got back?” I held my breath, waiting for the answer. He looked at me, as if asking if I really wanted the answer. “Tell me, Izo! I need to know.” He groaned.

“No, baby doll. He went to her house the day before yesterday and picked her up. That was the first day he saw her since she called, telling him she was back.”

I felt sick again. He had been spending time with her while I was planning how to get him back. He was seeing her, talking to her when I was wondering why he wasn’t calling me back. I dropped to my knees in the sand and sobbed. This was too much. I couldn’t believe how painful this was, how hollow I felt. It was literally painful. It was like I was underwater, drowning and struggling to breathe. The worst part was that I brought this on myself.

“Oh shit. Come on, sweetness. You can’t fall apart on me.” It was clear he didn’t do well with the crying stuff. “Come on, get up,” he said. “It’s not that bad. It’s really not as bad as you think. Yes, he saw her. Yes, he has spent a couple of days with her. But I know he has not touched her.”

I looked up at him with an accusing stare.

“Well, fuck. Okay, he had his arm around her. But what I mean is he hasn’t been with her. Intimately, you know? I’m sure of that.”

I looked up at him through blurred eyes.

“Izo, that’s not the point. You have to know that’s not the point.”

“I know, sweetness, but that man loves you, heart and soul. You haven’t been here to witness what I have. He’s been torn up inside since you left. He wasn’t even this torn up over Leah when she left him. And they were together for years. He loves you. I know he does.”

His phone buzzed and we looked toward his pocket.

“If that’s him, tell him I said to go to hell.” I dropped down onto my butt, sitting in the sand and not caring about getting dirty.

“Izo. Speak!”
Wow, he really did answer his phone like that every time.

“Yeah, man. I am…No, I seriously doubt that.” He paused and I look up at him. He held the phone out to me. “He wants to talk to you.”

Oh really?
Now he wanted to talk to me. I called him three times, left him a voicemail, and he couldn’t call me back because he was out with that tramp. But now he wanted to talk to me. That was rich!

“Tell him I said he can pack sand. I have nothing to say to him.”

Izo arched an eyebrow while cocking his head and smirking. He got back on the phone.

“Dude, she doesn’t want to talk to you…Yes, she said something, alright...Okay, have it your way. She said for you to go to hell and then she said you can pack sand, whatever that means.”

I looked back up at him and he chuckled. I was glad we could entertain him for the evening.

“J, I cannot make her get on the phone…Yeah, I can do that.” Izo tapped the screen of his phone and put it on damn speaker phone.
Nice!
That was wonderful. Now I had to hear what he had to say.

“Okay, go ahead man,” Izo said.

“I know you can hear me,” Jonathan said. “Please talk to me, Nicole. I know you’re thinking all sorts of crazy shit right now, but I swear I’m not hooking up with Leah. We are always one step forward and two steps back, you and me. No matter what I do. Please let me explain. I’m begging you. Just hear me out. I really had no idea you were coming back. Hell, I certainly didn’t think you would come see me when you got here. You were so angry, so hurt when I saw you last. I thought I had surely ruined things completely. I sent you the box and letter because I couldn’t let things go the way they ended. I needed you to know how I really felt...the way I still feel. Baby, please. I need you to believe me.”

I had heard enough. I pushed myself up and dusted the sand off my legs. I grabbed the phone and punched the speaker phone off. Then I put it to my ear.

“Jonathan, that all sounds fantastically sincere, but the problem is that you’re full of shit and you know it. I called you three times, Jonathan.
Three
damn times! You never called me back, and why? Let me tell you why. Because you were with her, spending time with your ex-freaking-girlfriend. And spare me the details, because Izo has filled me in. I’m sorry for her loss, but that’s no excuse for what I saw on the beach tonight. You cannot weasel your way out of what I saw with my own eyes.”

I paused and waited for his crappy response.

“Nicole, I know what you saw looked bad, but I swear it was innocent. She was crying. I was consoling her. That’s all it was.” Anger boiled up in me. I wanted to go through the phone and smack the hell out of him.