Page 38 of A Dove To Break

“Well, at least you are pretty. It would be worse if you weren’t,” Brent says, and I laugh tearfully.

“I’m sorry he was so awful to you, Nia,” Brent says. “I should have noticed something was happening. If I had…”

“He would have just hurt you, too,” I say.

“Either way, neither of us is at fault. Okay? I know it hurts, and I know nothing we say will make that pain go away, but please don’t keep beating yourself up over it. Okay?” Brent says, squeezing my hands.

“I have spent… years… trying to convince myself I didn’t care about you,” I admit. “I did everything I could to ignore your existence because I was terrified that you would end up just like him.”

“But?” he asks.

“But you are annoyingly sweet. No matter how much of a bitch I am to you, you just deal with it. You’d calm me down when I’d get angry. You were the one who taught me how to take deep breaths to calm down…”

Adrian barks out a laugh, and I turn and give him a confused look. “Sorry. Ignore me,” Adrian laughs.

“He’s being dirty,” Brent says.

“Oh… Oh! Jesus, Adrian. The memory is already embedded in my brain. No need to make it resurface.”

“Hey, now. No one has ever complained about…” Brent starts to say, pretending to be offended.

“You shut up,” I say, and he laughs.

“Are you coming tomorrow?” Adrian asks Brent.

“Not unless Alania drugs me,” Brent says.

“You asshole,” I laugh. He leans in and wraps me in a tight hug. It takes me a second, but I eventually hug him back. “I’m sorry I did that… even if I was made to.”

“Well, I’m sorry I violently jerked off to what I thought was a dream and then drank myself into alcohol poisoning the next day,” he says.

“What?” I ask, pulling back. “Why did you drink so much? You could have died.”

“That’s the part you are concerned about?” Adrian laughs.

“I mean, you whimper sometimes when you fuck me, so I can kinda guess why it was so violent,” I say, and they laugh. “It was a fucked up situation all around. I can’t blame anyone for how they tried to process that. I literally fucked every man who looked at me like he was interested.”

“I don’t know if that’s the same,” Adrian laughs.

“I also know him well enough to know that he is lying about the violent jerking off,” I say, and Adrian chuckles. “See?”

“Well, I will come by Sunday. You two get back and we can talk more then,” Brent says, patting my hand.

“Okay,” I say with a frown.

“Oh. Don’t do that to me, Nia,” Brent says, hugging me again.

“Is Dad going to be pissed at you?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about me,” he says, kissing my temple.

“Brently,” I say with a sigh.

“No,” he says. “I’ll be okay. I know how to handle him.”

“Evidently, so do I,” I say, but squeal when he tickles my sides. “Stop! You crazy man!”

“I’ll be okay,” he says. I promise,” Brent says, pulling back and holding my face. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”