Absolutely Unforgivable (15 page)

“I’ve known Debbie for a long time. Trust me, it doesn’t matter what you wear, she isn't going to judge you like that. She is going to love you.”

“I can’t do this, Billy. I just can’t.”

“I have never been as confident as I am right now when I say that I know Debbie is going to absolutely adore you. How can she not?” His words, while sweet, were still not all that reassuring.

“How about I go sit on the bed and you try on some different outfits that you like and come show them to me and I’ll let you know which one I like best?”

“Okay. I guess that would be a good idea,” I said as I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes.

I picked out a few of my favorite dresses and as I put each of them on I paraded past Billy who was sitting on my bed, propping himself up with an elbow. After about the fourth or fifth dress he grumbled, “My Lord, girl, you have way too many clothes.”

“No way! A girl can never have too many outfits,” I said as I twirled around in my latest number.

“Oh yeah, that’s hot,” he murmured.

I was feeling better now. Billy did seem to know how to make me forget about my troubles. But before I could thank him for being so wonderful, my bedroom door burst open. I was startled and jumped. Billy quickly sat all the way up on the edge of my bed.

It was Trista. “There you are. Billy, damn it, they are waiting for you downstairs in the studio.”

“Uh yeah sorry. Something came up.”

Trista glared at me. “I noticed.”

She hurried him out the door, closing it behind them. I started to walk back into my closet to actually find something I could wear when she came back in to my room.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

“Billy was just trying to help me find something to wear.” I hated how she thought she could talk to me like that but I really didn’t have the time to deal with her drama today. I had to focus on getting ready to meet Jeromy’s mother.

Trista looked me up and down, “Yeah, well, I need this shit to stop. I don’t need you distracting Billy with your little clothing drama or whatever problem you may have. He needs to be downstairs with the band practicing, not up here with you.”

I really would have just apologized and let everything else she said go, but then she added, “We have enough bimbos in our life. We don’t need one more.”

I was livid. How dare she call me a bimbo! My hands started to shake. I took a deep breath and spoke my piece.

“I don’t know who in the hell you think you are speaking to me like that but that’s not going to cut it with me. First of all, you are in MY room. I don’t know what made you think it was okay to burst into my private part of this house but it’s not. And it better not happen again.”

I took another deep breath and continued. “Secondly, what I do with Billy is my business. Not yours, not the band’s. Mine! If I want to dance around for him buck naked then I will do just that and you don’t have a say in it at all. You don’t matter to me. You are nothing to me. I am not in the band and therefore you have no say in my life so take your rude little ass out of my room and go back downstairs and keep pretending like you matter to the rest of the boys.”

She stormed out of my bedroom, slamming the door behind her. I went back to my closet and pulled out a hot pink dress that hung loose off of my body and had a lot of flowing material.

I suddenly didn’t care what anyone thought of what I was wearing. If she didn’t like me it wouldn’t be because of the outfit I had chosen. I grabbed a pair of black strappy heels, and was putting them on as Jeromy walked in.

“What the hell did you do to Trista?”

I looked up at him and shrugged, finished putting on my shoes, and then jumped into his arms and wrapped my arms tightly around his neck. He spun me around. “Let me look at you,” he said eagerly. “You look amazing.”

I gave him a soft kiss and a smile. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah but what’s going on with Trista? She is pissed off. I walked in on her ranting about how you think you rule this house.”

I grabbed Jeromy’s hand and said, “Don’t care. Let’s go” and I dragged him down the stairs.

When we reached the bottom of the staircase where Trista was with Billy, I didn’t say a word to her. I kissed Billy on the cheek and thanked him for his help and then walked out the door.

I threw my keys over to Jeromy and we headed to my car. As we got in, I plugged my phone into the radio and started playing
Bad Reputation
. It was really by accident that the song came up; but I must admit it was perfectly fitting.

A few years ago Jeromy had bought up some land out near where his company was now working. This wasn't exactly big news to me because he bought up empty land all of the time. But this particular acreage, which he had been sitting on for a while, was what kept him away from me the night before. It was a deal he was working on. If the deal went through and they drilled on the land he would get a big pay day. I wanted to ask him how big. But growing up in the South we learned at a young age that money wasn’t an appropriate topic of conversation, so I resisted the urge.

Luckily for me, Jeromy had no qualms discussing such things, so when he told me, I must say I was completely shocked. If the deal worked out in the way that he hoped, he stood to make about $3 million over a period of about eighteen months.

But, he warned, it wasn’t a done deal yet. There were still a lot of little details to work out. But there was a good eighty percent chance that it was going to go through in the next three to six months.

I was really happy for Jeromy. If anyone deserved that kind of success, it was him. He was the most kind and wonderfully sweet person in the whole world and the reason he turned out the way that he did was now standing in front of me.

When we arrived at the restaurant, Debbie was out front waiting for us. I was so nervous to meet her that luckily Jeromy distracted me with talk of his work on the way over or I might have actually gotten sick I was so worked up about it.

Jeromy’s mother looked nothing like I had imagined she would. She was tall, and incredibly thin. She had long, brown hair and a natural sun-kissed skin color. I looked at her carefully. Being from Oklahoma I had known several Native Americans before and while I couldn’t be sure, I had to wonder if she had at least some Native American heritage. Before I could put my hand out to shake hers, Debbie reached up and grabbed me, pulling me in for a hug.

“How’s Nathan?” Jeromy asked his mother.

She sighed. “You know your brother. He’s still the same ornery little shit that he has always been. Sometimes I wonder if he’ll ever grow up.”

“I really thought the military would smack some sense into the boy,” Jeromy told his mother and then he pulled her in for a tight hug.

“I know, son. Me too.”

When we sat down I glanced over the menu while Jeromy and his mother made small talk and continued on about Nathan. I hadn’t been to this place before and I wasn’t sure what to order. But luckily Debbie was quick to make some suggestions of things I might like.

Debbie complimented my outfit, my hair and spoke for quite a bit on the subject of my nails and how much she loved the color of my polish. I know she was probably just trying to find things to talk to me about and put me at ease, and I appreciated it.

I wasn’t quite sure what was going on with Jeromy’s brother Nathan. I had spoken to him quite a bit over the phone and through Facebook and Twitter, and he seemed perfectly fine. Young and crazy, but isn’t that what being young is all about?

Nathan was a sort of happy surprise for his parents, who after years of trying for another child had simply given up. Then one day, there he was. They were ecstatic, and treated him like the miracle baby he really was; because of complications from giving birth to Jeromy the doctor said she would never be able to have another child. So when Nathan came around some ten years later, they were beyond happy.

Perhaps treating him like a miracle baby wasn’t a good idea though, because he grew up differently than Jeromy as a result. He wasn’t the well-mannered, goal-oriented, ambitious, loving son that Jeromy was. He was far more carefree and reckless with his life choices.

When he joined the military, they were confident he would settle down and grow up but that only seemed to have fueled his wild ways. I was pretty sure they were exaggerating some of the stories but I didn’t want to speak up about it and get involved. It really was a private family moment and while I loved Jeromy dearly and knew he felt the same for me, I still wasn’t family and this Nathan problem really wasn’t any of my business.

Much to my surprise though Debbie made every effort to pull me into the conversation, asking me what I thought about Nathan.

“Well, you’ve known him longer than me so it’s hard for me to really say. But I think he’s a sweet kid and he means well.”

Debbie gave me a polite smile and then changed the subject, perhaps sensing I was uncomfortable. “You know we’ve been so caught up in talking about Nathan, I haven’t even remembered to ask how you have been enjoying Houston.”

“It’s different, that’s for sure. But all of the people I have met so far have been wonderful. I’ve really been enjoying myself. I’ve become good friends with Mindy, who is dating the drummer in Billy’s band.”

“Yes, I think I met her before. Sweet girl. She came by the house before with Billy and the boys for dinner.”

I started to warm up to Debbie and even told her about the horribly embarrassing video that Brick posted about me on the band’s YouTube page, the first one, not the latest one.

“Ahh yes, the superstar video. Billy told me about that.”

I was shocked that Billy had told her about the video. I hadn’t even realized Billy and Debbie talked as often as they apparently did.

“They do seem to have trouble with boundaries. I reminded Billy of that today. They sometimes forget that you aren’t one of the boys and they need to respect your privacy or at the very least ask your permission before posting videos that you are in.”

Jeromy chimed in, defending his buddies. “I don’t know mom, I thought the video was kind of cute.”

“Cute or not, it was not cool for them to post videos of your girlfriend without at least telling her first. If you and Stacy are going to live with Billy then his friends need to learn to respect her boundaries. She does have a reasonable expectation of privacy in her own home, does she not?” I was beaming. I was glad someone finally agreed with me.

Jeromy shrugged. “Yeah. I guess you are right, when you look at it that way.”

“Of course I am. I’m your mother. It’s my job to be right,” Debbie replied playfully.

Wow, Billy was right.
She was wonderfully sweet. There was not a mean bone in her tiny little, frail body. I don’t know why I was so worried she wasn’t going to like me. She was great.

After lunch, Jeromy and I made our way back home. While I was sitting in the passenger seat looking out my window my phone buzzed. I looked down to see Billy had left me a text message. “Told you everything was going to be okay.” He was absolutely right. The lunch had gone great. I loved Jeromy’s mother. She was a wonderfully warm-hearted person. I texted him back to let him know that it went well and that I appreciated all of his support and that we would be home soon and I would tell him all about it.

With my phone in my hand, I mindlessly started flipping through photos I had taken from the night before of the band and the girls. I smiled as I looked at pictures of Bran drinking shots out of Mindy’s bellybutton and several different pictures of Billy on stage.

Soon though, Jeromy put his hand over on my knee and gently rubbed it. “Baby, can we talk?” I stiffened at hearing those words. He sounded so serious, it worried me, and even more so when I looked over at him and saw the horribly sad but serious look on his face.

“Okay? What about?” I asked him cautiously.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I’m not going to be able to make it to the big blowout this weekend.”

Just before I could say
umm okay
, it hit me. He was talking about the big Fourth of July party. My heart sank, tears started to well up in my eyes.

“Baby, I have to work. It can’t be helped.”

“Can’t I go with you? Maybe I can help. I’m not too bad with the clerical stuff,” I muttered, tears now rolling down my cheek.

“No, wives can’t go there.”

Wives? That was a strange way to say what he did. What did he mean wives can’t go
there
? Does that mean other kind of women could go? Why didn’t he say women can’t go there, why phrase it like he did? And where is there?

I barely got a “But ...” out of my mouth when he said, “Let’s go inside and talk about it.” I looked around, to see where we were. I was so caught up in what he was saying to me I hadn’t even noticed we were back home, in our driveway.

I was pissed. How could he do this? And what the hell did he mean by wives can’t go there? I flung open the car door, slamming it behind me and ran to the front door, Jeromy chasing behind me trying to catch me.

When I got in the front door I ran right into Billy. I didn’t say a word just let out a growl and then stormed up the stairs with Jeromy close behind me. Billy said, “Is she okay man?” Jeromy didn’t respond, he just ran up the stairs trying to catch me.