Sixty one

Chapter sixty one

Eva

There was another birthday down at Failte, and this time, it turned out to be Billy Acher’s. I hadn’t realized that when I walked through the door because he wasn’t having a big celebration that would eventually overtake the whole bar; rather, it was just him and an older man and a woman who, after giving me a big hug, he introduced to me as his parents.

“It’s my birthday,” Billy said. “And my parents wanted to take me out, and I thought what better place to come to than my favorite bar in the world, especially if there was the chance of running into you. Sit, join us.”“That would be lovely,” his mother said, smiling. “Billy’s told us a lot about you.”

“He has?”

“Well, just that I happened to meet one of the nicest, funniest girls I think I’ve ever met before,” Billy said. He paused. “And that I hoped she wouldn’t turn me down when I asked her if she’d like to go out with me.” He grinned.

There were a couple of ways I could play this. I could agree to go out with him, because he was nice and we did get along, and I knew that would make him happy, but I knew I would never like him the same way he liked me. Or, I could tell him no, that I wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now, yet that would leave the door open tosome time in the future. “I’m actually seeing someone,” I said. I knew that pretending that Luke and I were still together was not going to help me get over him any faster, but I also didn’t want Billy to start thinking that I was available. Part of me thought that it was presumptive to even be thinking that, but then I kept thinking to what Clara had said about him wanting to take me to his parents’ summer house. If I could avoid that whole conversation altogether, it would be a good thing. What sucked was that I actually did enjoy hanging out with Billy, and getting to go with him to his parents’ summer house would probably be a lot of fun—if it was understood that it was a friends-only sort of thing.“You are?” Billy said, his gaze going from me to his father. “You’re seeing someone?”

“Yes,” I said. I saw Billy look at his dad again, and then his dad and his mother exchanged looks. I was getting a weird feeling, all of a sudden, like there was something going on that everyone but me was privy to. I looked at Billy. “I’m sorry if that wasn’t what you were expecting to hear.”

“Oh,” his mother said after a moment had passed and Billy didn’t say anything. “We were under the impression that you were single.”

“I’m not quite sure what gave you that impression,” I said. “I don’t remember us talking about this before or anything.”

“Well . . .” Billy glanced at hisfather, who was looking at me closely, as though he were trying to detect whether or not I was lying about seeing someone. I didn’t care, though, if he had the world’s greatest bullshit detector and he knew that I wasn’t telling the truth. “I see. I didn’t realize that—”

“It’s not Luke Robert, is it?” his father asked.

Inwardly, I flinched at the sound of his name, but I tried to keep my composure. “Yes,” I said. “It is.”

His father gave me a gentle smile. “Last I heard of it, Ian wasn’t involved with anyone. Or maybe it was that he was involved with several someones. He’s that kind of guy, you know. Man about town.” “I didn’t realize you knew him,” I said stiffly.

“Of course I know him; he technically works for me.”

“He owns his own business. He doesn’t work for you.”

Billy’s father smiled. “Let me rephrase that: I am one of his biggest clients.”

“So that means you know about his love life?”

“I know about a lot of things. Something else I know is that my son is a good man and—”

“Dad,” Billy said, a mortified expression on his face. “I thought you told me that you had talked to him—”

“Luke?” I interrupted. “Are you saying you got your dad to talk to Luke?”The realization hit me—and of course, it was so obvious now. That had been the impetus for Luke’s sudden decision that we just stop seeing each other. I knew there had to be something more, that I wasn’t getting the whole story.

“Eva,” Billy said, turning to me, “I’m sorry, I know it probably seems really weird that my father would talk to Luke.”

I stared at him. “Um, yeah, that’s putting it mildly.”

“We’ve known Luke a while,” he continued, as though that somehow made it okay. “He and I went to school together.”

“Yeah, I think he might have mentioned that. But what does that have to do with the fact that you got your father to talk to with Luke, andtbasically made him break up with me?”

“I didn’t realize the two of you were together,” Billy said. “I mean, he had mentioned that you guys were sort of seeing each other, but . . . well . . . knowing Luke, and his past . . . he’s always seeing someone. Or that’s how he used to be anyway.”

“I see. So you figured I was just another disposable name on Luke's list.” It occurred to me as I said it that I thought I had been too, for a little while, but I knew that wasn’t really the case. “And I know Luke,” I said. “Why would he just do what you told him to? That doesn’t even make any sense. He’s not the type of person that you can just tell him what to do and he’ll go along with it.”

“You’re right,” Billy’s father said.“He’s really not. That’s something that I’ve respected about him all these years, too. But . . . there are a few things one could say to him that he’d have reason to go along with.”

“Like what?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “What did you say to him?”

“Do you really want to get into this? It’s all water under the bridge now.”

“No, it’s not, because whatever it was you talked to him about directly affected me. So it’s not just ‘water under the bridge now’ or whatever it is you want to call it.”

“Perhaps this isn’t the time or the place for this,” Billy’s mother said.

“I don’t think it’s ever the time or place to have your parents interfere with something like this.” I could feel my anger rising, my voice gettinglouder; I didn’t care. Who the hell did these people think they were? Why did they think for a second that it would be okay? “You know what? You don’t have to tell me what you said to Luke—I’m sure it was something vile. Or it was probably a lie. Or some combination of the two. But now let me tell you something. I am not interested in dating your son.”

The air seemed to hang heavily between us. Billy’s mother blinked like she couldn’t believe that someone was actually saying this about her son. His father’s expression was harder to read, though it might have been bordering on one of amusement. Billy, I could only see out of the corner of my eye, and his head was in his hands.

“It’s not that I don’t think he’s very nice—because I do,” I said, wanting to backpedal a little, but not enough so they’d get the wrong idea. “He seems very nice, and we actually get along quite well, but I will never date him. And would you like to know why?”

“No, it’s really okay,” Billy said, picking his head up. “It’d be great if we actually just terminated this entire conversation. Is that possible? Can we do that? Or should I just get up and leave?”

His mother reached out and patted his hand. “Sweetie, it’s your birthday,” she said. “I want this to be a happy celebration.”

He grimaced. “Well, there’s no way in hell that’s going to happen.” He looked at me. “Eva, I’m really sorry. I think I got the wrong idea, or maybe itwas just wishful thinking. I think you’re really great—I’ve got no shame in admitting that. And if you wanted to date me, I’d be thrilled. But if it’s just a friend thing for you, that’s cool. I’m fine with that. I don’t want you to feel like you’re being pressured into anything.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I’m glad to hear you feel that way, even if it seems that your parents don’t. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but there is no way in hell I am going to date you. I realize that sounds pretty harsh, but I think that’s required in this sort of situation.”

I was looking at Billy’s dad as I said this though, and he was just sitting there like he couldn’t be more amused. Is that all he thought this was? Did he think this was funny?

“I can see that you mean business,” he said finally. He held up his hands. “I apologize if it seems that any boundaries were crossed. That wasn’t my intention.”

“Just because it wasn’t your intention doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” I said. “But I do mean exactly what I’m saying, and that is that regardless of whether Ian and I end up back together or not; I’m not dating your son. You don’t get to make that choice for me.”

Billy’s dad nodded. “I can see that you mean it,” he said. “I won’t interfere.”

“And I don’t know what exactly the terms of all this were with Ian, but hecertainly doesn’t seem like the type of person who just goes and does something because someone asked him to. So whether you were going to take your business elsewhere or do something to him, may I suggest that you don’t do that.”

“Or what?” Billy’s father asked. “What sorts of repercussions will be facing if we do?”

“Sean.” Billy’s mom shook her head. She looked at me. “We’re sorry,” she said. “Truly. Billy’s father and I have been hoping he’d find a girl and settle down soon, and we were delighted when your name started coming up because it seemed like he’d really taken an interest in you. But obviously we don’t want to force anyone to do anything, and we wanteveryone to be happy. So please accept our apologies about this whole . . . misunderstanding. It certainly was not our intention.”

“Um, yeah. Well, I better get going. I’m sorry if this ruined your birthday.”