Chapter 114
845 Words
Ten days later
Kat stood in the middle of her living room, hands on her hips, staring at Olivia in complete disbelief. She was exasperated and angry, and all those things that she’d been longing to say to Liv for the past week were bubbling away just below the surface. She’d refrained from saying any of them, in deference to Liv’s fragility, but she was doing better now, and Kat felt that the time for a ‘come-to-Jesus’ talk had finally arrived.
Jim was next to Kat, and he laid a calming hand on her arm.
“Liv,” he said. “I really, really think you’ve got that wrong. In fact, I know you do.”
“And I’m really, really sure that I don’t,” Liv shot back. “I don’t care what he says… he actually thinks I’m ugly and repulsive. That’s why he’s so polite and distant every time we talk. That’s why he barely touches me, and won’t look at me when he’s anywhere close to me.”
Kat took a deep breath. “He does not think that about you. Dallas thinks that this is all his fault. He promised to protect you, and he thinks he failed you, and he’s waiting for you to come to that same conclusion. He’s waiting for you to hate him, Liv.”
“That’s so f*****g stupid.”
“I agree,” Kat said. “Know what else is f*****g stupid? Assuming that Dallas finds you ugly and repulsive.”
“Look at me!” Olivia shouted. “Look at my face! My upper body looks like a f*****g surrealist nightmare! How can he not find me disgusting?”
“Because he loves you!” Kat shouted back, losing her temper now. “You think he just loved you for your f*****g perfect face and f*****g perfect body? You don’t think he loves you, Olivia? Your kindness? Your guts? Your sense of humor? My God, Olivia – you really think it was all just about your ass?”
Liv and Jim both stared at her.
“Let me ask you something,” Kat said. “If Dallas had been badly hurt at work, and he was going to have scars on his face and all down his chest, would you have stopped loving him? Found him ugly? Repulsive?”
“No!” Liv said angrily. “I’m not that shallow!”
“So why not give him the same credit?” Kat said. “He’s a good man, Liv, a decent, loving man. Why not treat him like he’s one?”
Liv opened her mouth to answer, then shut it again.
“He – he really blames himself?” she asked hesitantly. “For everything that’s happened?”
“Completely,” Jim said. “And he thinks that you do, too.”
She sat down, all her fight gone. “I don’t.”
“So why not go to him and tell him that?” Jim said.
Liv looked up at them. “What if you’re wrong about him still wanting to be with me?”
Kat sat down next to her, took her hands. “Hon, your whole life has been thrown into a blender over the past few days… so many things have changed since that asshole cut you. But we’re all still here, OK? And I know that Dallas feels the same way about you as he did before you were hurt.”
“How?” Liv asked. “How do you know?”
“Because the man has done nothing but punish himself since it happened,” Kat said quietly. “He’s lost, Liv, and he’s in torment. People don’t hurt that way about people who mean nothing at all to them.”
Liv stared at her hands.
Jim sat on her other side. “For the past ten days, me and the guys have tried everything we can think of to get Dallas to believe that you don't and won’t hate him. He won’t listen to us. There’s only one person he’ll listen to, Liv, and she’s sitting right here staring at her hands.” He brushed her hair off her face and she stiffened; she’d taken to pulling it forward to hide the damage. “I know you’ve been through hell, sweetheart… I’d do anything to go back and stop any of it from happening to you. But it did happen, and you’re going to have to figure out how to live with all of it.”
She blinked back tears.
“I really think that Dallas can help you with that,” he said. “I think he’d pull you through, and be there for you. All you have to do is ask him.”
“Yeah?” Liv said.
“Yeah,” Kat and Jim said together.
Liv nodded. “OK. OK, I’ll try.” She looked at Jim. “Can you drive me?”
“No problem, Liv.” He grinned. “Kat and I have a plan.”
- Writer
