The Truth About Us

by Megan D. Martin

  “Yes, the town talks, as you know.” He moved around some papers on his desk and handed me the past month’s financial spreadsheets – the paperwork I’d come in to look over. “They’ve done really well, Rowan. Better than ever expected. Look at the last page.”

  I frowned and flipped to the back. The bold number figure jumped out at me. Our profit for the month. It was down, significantly less than last month.

  “We’ve been at a steady decline since Nusom Automotive opened,” he said.

  I knew this. I knew Tyler’s shop had hurt us some – I had expected that, but the numbers here didn’t make sense. “This is down a lot, Dad. I don’t understand. It shouldn’t be this much.”

  “That’s why I want you to be extra careful when you double-check it this time.” He drummed his fingers on the desk. I recognized the movement. He did it when he was nervous – his only tell that something bothered him.

  “Sure, of course.” I flipped back to the front page and pulled out my calculator and laptop from my bag. As I started to work he got up and moved around the office, moving papers around. After about ten minutes I couldn’t take it anymore – Dad wasn’t normally like this. We would have our conversation then he would head out into the shop and work on some car that needed his attention, there were always a few. But not this time.

  “What’s wrong, Dad?”

  “Justin quit yesterday at the end of the work day.”

  “Are you kidding? Justin was one of our best technicians.”

  “Yeah, he was Rowan, and now he works for Nusom – that’s why he quit. They promised him more money. Just like Rafael, Lark, and Joe, they all work for him now. We’re short staffed and you know how hard it is to come by a good, trustworthy technician.” He ran a hand over his balding head. “I’m not sure what we’re gonna do if things keep up like this. This is an all-time low for us, Row. I’ve never lost this many techs in such short succession before. We’ve only got Darren, Chris, Ethan, and the new guy, but he’s not gonna last. Not with the way he’s been screwing up these last couple weeks.”

  I swallowed, nodding. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Why’d you do it, Row?” He stopped on the other side of his desk, staring at me with the same color eyes as my own.

  “Do what?” I rubbed one of my temples, begging the pounding to stop.

  “Cheat on Tyler.”

  My gaze widened. We’d never talked about what took place – as far as I knew, he didn’t even know why we split.

  “Oh, don’t act surprised. We all saw the video that went around the shop.” He shook his head.

  Sickness speared my already queasy belly. “Dad—”

  “It’s your life, Row. I know that. That’s why I didn’t push, it’s why I didn’t say anything when it happened. I know what it’s like to be young and stupid.”

  I chewed my lip. He didn’t even know the half of my stupidity when it came to Tyler, but I wasn’t about to volunteer any more information, much less the truth, which would probably crush him worse than the lies.

  “But look what it’s led to.”

  “What are you saying?” I glanced down at the spreadsheets and then it dawned on me. “Are you seriously blaming me for this?”

  “What other explanation is there? If you hadn’t done what you did, Tyler would still be here. Nusom Automotive wouldn’t exist and life would be good.” He gestured at the papers in my hands. “But because of you and your poor choices, now our business is going down the drain.”

  My jaw dropped open. My dad was one to jump to conclusions, to be harsh, but this was an all new level. He liked to guilt people into doing what he wanted, but this was downright cruel. “Dad, what the—”

  “You messed this up, Row. You broke that boy’s heart and he went out and started his own damn business. You didn’t just screw him over, you screwed me too.” He pressed his hand on the desk. “Now, what do we do when we screw things up? Hmm?” His death stare shot daggers at me.

  I knew what he wanted me to say – but I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t speak the words he wanted to hear.

  “Rowan Valentina Steel.” His voice rose an octave. “What do we do?”

  I stared right back, meeting his death stare with my own. He smacked his fist on the desk, making me jump and break my focus.

  I sighed, frustrated. “When we screw things up, we fix it.”

  “That’s right. That’s what we Steels do. That’s what you’re going to do.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “What does that even mean? Fix what? Tyler and I are over. Done.”

  Are you? That kiss…

  I ignored the voice in my head.

  He shook his head. “Nope. I refuse to believe that. I thought you kids would figure your shit out at some point and all this would go away, but now it’s affecting the business too much to ignore.”

  I snorted. “So what do you expect me to do? Go and beg Tyler to take me back?”

  “If that’s what it takes, then yes. You’ll do what you need to, to fix this wrong.”

  “How do you even know that would work, Dad? Let’s say for some miraculous reason, Tyler and I did get back together – I sincerely doubt he would close the shop he just opened up.” Plus, I didn’t want him to.

  “We will come to that hurdle when we get to it.”

  “You’re kidding right?” I clutched the spreadsheets in my hand, ready to rip them apart. “What if I don’t want to be with him? You would want me to try and make something work with someone I don’t want to be with?”

  Dad sat back down across from me. He pulled out a cigarette from his top right drawer and lit up, taking a deep drag and letting out the smoke before answering. He didn’t seem to care that I was trembling with anger across from him. “We both know that’s not true. You love that boy, and he loves you. I’m just speeding up the inevitable, Row. Get your head out of your ass and fix things with Tyler, before this whole business collapses on top of us.” He took another drag and chuckled. “It’s funny because when I started this place before you were born, I never thought it would all hang in the balance over my daughter’s love life. I would have kicked the ass of whoever told me this was coming in my future. Everything I built – hinged on you.” He smiled sadly. “I love you, Row. Don’t let me down.”

  “I hope Italian was okay.” Owen smiled at me across the booth.

  I nodded, but didn’t return his smile. I hadn’t planned on coming on this date. Honestly, I hadn’t expected to hear from Owen at all after the other night, no matter how genuine he tried to sound. But I had heard from him. In fact, he had texted me every day since the day we met, a little over a week ago. This date was his third attempt to ask me out – the first two I had declined for an obvious reason: I had freaking kissed Tyler at the bar – a kiss I still couldn’t get off my mind.

  After our morning meeting, where Dad had laid all his cards on the table and demanded I fix all his problems, I had taken a brief – extremely brief – moment to consider what he said. I didn’t want the shop to go under; that was the last thing I wanted. But I had ended things with Tyler for a reason – a really good one. A reason my father would lose his mind over if he knew the truth of it, and I couldn’t have that. Telling Tyler the truth had been hard enough, and I hadn’t even managed to actually do it. There was no way my dad could ever know what really went on and why. Therefore, there was no way in hell I was going to try and patch things up with Tyler, especially not because my dad asked me to.

  There was something else I could do though, which Stacie was quick to point out later on, after the meeting with my dad: I could try to help my dad get good technicians back in his shop. After close examination of the last month’s books, I realized that we hadn’t necessarily lost business because we didn’t have customers interested in using our shop, but because the turnover meant not enough technicians to take on the work. While many people were loyal to Steel Mechanics, Inc., they didn’t want to wait an extra two weeks to get their car fixed w
hen Nusom Automotive could have their car back in three days, tops. If we had good technicians, and enough of them, we would be just fine.

  Fast forward a week and here I was, sitting across from Owen, feeling like a terrible person. I was doing exactly what Tyler had accused me of doing that night at the bar – I was trying to poach who he claimed was “one of his best techs.” The thing that made it even worse: we couldn’t afford to beat Tyler’s pay rate, which had been easy to find through google. So this date had turned into some sort of, “please like me and come work for us, because I’m worth a pay cut…” train wreck.

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Italian is great.” I didn’t tell him about my Italian heritage at that point. It would have been a good opening, a start to genuine conversation, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it for some reason. Instead I settled on staring at him, and picking at the bread on my plate.

  “Good, I’m glad. Honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to convince you to go on a date with me at all. I was shocked when you said yes this time.” He had his hair slicked back again, but it looked good on him, whereas it looked lame and creepy on other guys.

  “Really? Why?”

  “I mean, come on. I saw the way Victor and those guys treated you.”

  I shrugged, Victor being the last person I wanted to talk about, ever.

  “Yeah, and Tyler was in a shit mood for the rest of the night at the bar. I’ve never seen him so pissed.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, him and his girl left not too long after we talked outside. Claiming he was tired or something, so I just chilled with Vic and his girl, but no one ever filled me in on why he exploded on you.”

  I knew my eyes were practically bulging from my head. I also knew that Tyler had been pissed when we kissed, but a week had passed and I hadn’t heard from, or seen Tyler – not that I expected to – and a part of me had convinced myself that I had made the kiss out to be more than it really was due to the amount of alcohol I had consumed. Had he been as affected by the kiss as I was? Had he thought about it this week?

  “Rowan?”

  “Oh, uh, yeah, well, it’s a long story, that’s not really worth telling to be honest. It’s in the past. Victor just has a lot of trouble letting things go. He’s never really liked me.”

  Owen nodded. “Well, their loss. You seem like a pretty great catch to me.”

  I blushed and Owen smiled, highlighting that dimple in his cheek. He really was handsome, and a twinge of guilt hit me.

  Chill out, Rowan. It’s like you’re only here to try and get him to come work for your dad. You think he’s cute! This could be a good thing.

  My subconscious was right. I let out a breath and smiled at Owen. Maybe this really was a good thing. Stacie had thought it was. She practically jumped at me from her big purple chair when she found out I had turned down two dates with the guy.

  “So an insanely cute guy asks you out and he’s some sort of wizard car technician? Um, Rowan, hello?” She held up her hands. “Two birds, one stone. Ring any bells? You can have freaking both. Save the business and get the hot new guy. Win win win!”

  Stacie was always overly optimistic. I wished I had her enthusiasm for things. Though she didn’t like hearing about the fact that I made out with Tyler in a dirty bar hallway – not because of the hallway, but because of Tyler. She had never known us while we were together, but she thought the whole situation sounded shady. I didn’t blame her. It was shady. He was at the bar with his girlfriend, yet he kissed me.

  “What do you think about having some wine?” Owen’s voice brought me back to the present. A waiter stood next to our table, both he and Owen looking at me expectantly.

  I smiled, releasing a pent up breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I think that sounds great.”

  I was going to push all thoughts of Tyler and my dad out of my head, at least for the rest of this date, and attempt to have a good time.

  It was a little after midnight when Owen pulled his truck in front of my apartment building. I still had a slight buzz from the wine we’d had at dinner, though nothing that compared to the sloppy drunkenness from last week.

  “Thanks for coming out, Rowan. I had a great time.” Owen smiled at me.

  “I had a good time too.” That wasn’t a lie, once I relaxed at dinner, everything changed. I enjoyed my food and Owen’s company. It turned out he was pretty funny, and we liked a lot of the same Netflix shows like Altered Carbon and Stranger Things. We ended up spending several hours hogging our booth at the little Italian place, just chatting, before he brought me home.

  He didn’t hesitate in leaning over to kiss me. I expected it, in fact I had wondered about it most of the night. The only person I’d kissed in the last four years years had been Tyler. I couldn’t remember what it was like to kiss anyone else, to feel passion and desire for someone who wasn’t Tyler. The more I thought about it throughout dinner, the more I wanted Owen to kiss me, to help me forget the feel of Tyler’s angry lips from just a week ago.

  Owen’s lips were warm against mine, soft, but firm. His tongue snaked across the seam of my lips, tempting me to open and I did. Swirling in my mouth between my teeth, his tongue met mine. A soft glow of heat warmed my cheeks as the kiss deepened. He pressed his hand against my arm, which I’d planted on the seat rest. And then it was over.

  I smiled at Owen as he pulled back. He wasn’t smiling, his gaze was heated, needy. That look sparked a heat down deep in my belly. I bit my lower lip. “Thanks Owen. I really had a great time.”

  He nodded. “See you soon, Rowan.”

  I climbed out of the truck with exhilaration swooning in my blood. I had done it. I’d gone on a date with a guy who wasn’t Tyler, finally. I’d kissed him, and I hadn’t hated it. A part of me, in fact a big part of me, was desperate to compare that kiss to Tyler’s from last week – but I refused. I shut those thoughts out, letting only happiness fill me. I went out on a date and had a nice time with a nice guy. I was doing it! I was moving on. Finally, after all this time.

  “Have fun?” The deep voice at the top of my apartment stairs, nearly sent me tumbling backward as I pulled my keys from my purse halfway up the flight.

  “What the—Tyler?” I squinted into the dark, and lo and behold, there he sat at the top of the stairwell, the one that led to both mine and Stacie’s apartments. “What are you doing here?” I ceased climbing, still squinting at him in the dark.

  This can’t be real. I’m dreaming. I’ve lost my mind. That’s it. I’m in a nightmare. There’s no escape.

  I inwardly cursed our cheap building owners for not replacing the bulbs in the motion sensor lights.

  He stood up and stepped back from the stairs onto the landing. “I just came here to talk.”

  I frowned and moved up the stairs until I stood on the landing as well. “About what?”

  “Well, I wanted to talk about what happened last week.”

  Even in the dark, I could see the light scruff on his face and cheeks, his gaze piercing through the shadows. His muscular body seemed to take up all the space on the landing. I looked away. He was so good looking it hurt. “Oh, there’s nothing to talk about, really.”

  “You really think that, Rowan?” His voice grew louder.

  I frowned. “I know, Tyler. It didn’t mean anything. You don’t have to tell me. We were drunk in a bar. It’s fine. It was a mistake.” I didn’t know if he was actually drunk, but I could still taste the whiskey on his tongue when I thought about that night.

  He scoffed. “Yeah, clearly. Didn’t know you were seeing Owen officially now?”

  I shrugged and gave him my back, pulling out my keys.

  Just be cool, Rowan. Don’t let him get under your skin.

  But what the fuck is he doing here?!

  The inner conversation with myself raged as my heart pounded in my chest. There were days, weeks, maybe even months where I imagined this exact thing happening. Tyler showing up
on my doorstep after I ruined everything, claiming that he couldn’t live without me, that he would forgive my wrongs, even though the things he thought he had to forgive didn’t really exist at all. Instead there were other unforgiveable truths I would never tell.

  Tyler never came, and I realized back before that it was probably because he didn’t know where I lived, nor did he care to know. The lock clicked open under my hand. I glanced over my shoulder, puzzled.

  “How did you know where I lived?”

  “That’s what you want to know, seriously?”

  “Well, yeah.” I pushed into my apartment. I didn’t close the door behind me. There were two parts of me. One that hoped he would take the hint and leave, and the second that hoped he would take the other hint and follow me inside.

  He followed me in, closing the door behind him with a resounding thunk.

  “It doesn’t matter, Rowan. I came here tonight to talk to you like adults and, of course, I show up to you being—”

  “Being what, Tyler? Are you kidding me?” Fury burned in my veins. “I’ve had enough of you and Victor and whoever else treating me like shit. We’ve been split up for almost a year. I’m allowed to date, just the same as you are! So back off, got it?” I was through being treated like crap, at least right now. Victor, Tyler, my dad, they’d all been pushing me around and pressing my buttons these last couple of weeks and I was sick and tired of it. I couldn’t seem to have a single moment of happiness without one of them stomping all over it.

  “Oh, so that makes it okay for you to just go after my friends, is that it? Are you trying to punish me or something? I don’t know if you’re not remembering things clearly, but you’re the one who cheated on me, with – with –”

  “Yeah, well, he wasn’t your friend, was he? I don’t see why it matters anyway, Tyler. You’ve moved on. You have a girlfriend.” I sighed.