52. Katrinia
52
Katrinia
I t’s been a week since Cooper came home freshly beaten and bruised from getting in the ring with Theo. Cooper’s eye is still swollen and a ruddy red and purple color underneath, but he’ll live.
Theo’s lip has healed some but his nose is still sporting some discoloration. Luna has gotten over it and now just shrugs it off like I do but that didn’t stop her from booking the guys their own makeup artist.
Her exact words were, “Cover it up or stay out of pictures. I will not be showing pictures of you two looking like a pack of rabid dogs to my grandchildren.”
Cooper, of course, doesn’t care about the makeup and brought his own from the tattoo shop. Technically it’s to cover tattoos but I guess it will work on the over abundance of raw masculinity still displaying on their faces.
Lucky for them we bypassed a lot of the airport drama as we met up with our party and prepared to board the private jet. Never in my life did I think I would fly on a private plane. Let alone twice in the same damn year.
The latter of those flights soon on its way to Europe.
When we were kids the three of us would pull out the big world atlas the guy’s mom picked up at a truck stop and flip through all the maps. We’d spend hours planning out all the places we wanted to go to when we were old enough to leave our small town.
Theo always wanted to visit Spain. To get back in touch with his roots. Cooper wanted to see Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark. He became obsessed with them after we did these DNA ancestry tests for a school project and he found out he was over thirty percent of Viking descent.
A tiny fraction of that must have come from their mother’s side because Theo was a mix of Spanish, Scandinavian, Portuguese with a hint of Southeastern European.
I, to no surprise, was a mix of eastern European, Russian and Asian. I didn’t need an ancestry test to tell me that. My mother and uncles were always going on and on about our family’s history and Russian pride.
So it’s a bit surreal to be traveling across the sea with my two best friends just like we’ve always dreamed.
I’m standing behind Theo, handing off our bags to an airport employee when I hear the screeching of his mother’s beckoning call before she starts rambling on in Spanish.
“Oh, pensé que te extra?aba. No puedo creer que mi bebé haya crecido y se vaya a casar.” She shrieks as she shoves me aside reaching for Theo.
“Hey ma.” Theo rolls his eyes, giving her a hug and mouthing “I’m sorry” to me over her shoulder.
I wave him off and ascend the stairs to board the plane.
Thirty minutes later we are in the air when Luna comes over, a glass of champagne in hand, and plops down next to me.
“Trin please, you have to help me. How do I get Theo’s mom to like me? The woman makes me so nervous and I’ve only met her a few times.” Cooper laughs next to me before slinging an arm over my shoulder.
“Yeah zhena, how do you get mama Carmen to like you?”
His taunting smirk is enough for me to drive my elbow into his gut before I grit out, “You don’t. That woman has hated me since the day I met her.”
Luna looks at me confused. “But Theo said you were just a child when you moved in down the street?”
I huff out a laugh before glancing over at Carmen. “Yep. I barely spoke English and still had training wheels on my bike but the woman already had it out for me.”
“Don’t take it personal, sis. She’s hated every girl either of us has ever brought home. I’m sure she will come around eventually.” Cooper comforts Luna but I’m left quarreling over his words.
“Wait, I know Theo dated around a bit but who were you bringing home?” I question giving my husband a pointed stare.
“Uh oh, I’m going to check on Theo.” Luna politely dismisses herself before quickly making her way to the other end of the plane.
“Let’s not do this here. We can talk about it when we land if you want.” Cooper places a seemingly soothing hand on my thigh as though that’s going to change the fact that sometime over the years we spent apart he cared enough about someone to bring her home to meet his mother and lied to me about it.
The more I sit there and think it over the more feelings of jealousy and betrayal curdle in my stomach like sour milk. We discussed our years apart in great depth when we first came back into each other’s lives. We made an effort to get everything out in the open and relearn who each other were. So why hasn’t he ever mentioned this?
“No, I think we will talk about this now.” I insist before getting up and making my way past the dining portion of the plane and back to the bedroom area.
Most of our party is up front but regardless Cooper shuts the door behind him for our privacy.
“Who did you bring home? You never cared about anyone enough before me so it must have been after.” I toss out my accusation before even fully turning around to face him.
His hand on my waist turns me the rest of the way and his dark sarcastic stare shows he’s enjoying my temper like the sadist I know he is. I’ve never had to hide my feelings, whether they be rage or fear or anything in between, from Cooper. He’s always been able to transcribe every single one of my insecurities and emotions anyway so the act of trying to hide them would be pointless.
Sometimes, it’s like he knows me better than I know myself. Which is a curse disguised as a blessing, because like right now, he uses the way he is able to read me like a book for his own sick advantages.
“It was after you.” He whispers as he dips his head to kiss my neck.
Pushing him back I demand to know who she was.
He runs his hands down his face as he lets out a long audible sigh. It feels like he may never answer me or look at me again when he tilts his head down and his lips begin to move, “She was my drug dealer.”
His admission comes out so clearly I can’t argue that I didn’t hear him correctly.
“Drug dealer!?” I begin to pace the small room before his hands come down on my shoulders to steady me.
“It was after I got out of the military and my depression was eating me alive. My prescription for an injury I sustained while on duty ran out and Tasha was there and more than willing to step in. I used to see her around at parties and stuff. So it wasn’t like she was a stranger. We never dated but one summer she wanted to make her boyfriend mad so we fucked around a few times. I took her with me when I went home for a weekend right before Theo got locked up the last time. It was never anything serious. She just wanted to get out of town and away from her jerk off boyfriend and I wanted free pills.”
I stand there silenced, though my mind is racing. Thoughts speeding by so fast I can almost feel the wind against the walls of my mind.
“So you’re an addict?” It’s the only thing I can think to ask. The only thought that comes by with enough concern to draw in my focus.
“No, I was depressed and lost and partied a little too much but I wouldn’t consider myself an addict.” He steps around me and takes a seat on the bed, pulling me onto his lap. “Trin, I was dying, rotting from the inside out after you left and when I didn’t have the Army to distract me I lost my way a little. Living without you was like living without a soul. I was a shell of a person. The booze and the drugs took the edge off for a little while, but when they left my system it was like everything I was trying to avoid feeling when I was fucked up would rush right back in all at once when I was sober. When things got really dark that’s when I got help and started seeing Dr. Bennett.”
I close my eyes in an effort to fight back my emotion but when I squeeze my eyes shut a single tear falls and Cooper catches it. He catches it like he’s always caught me. Like he will always catch me. Though when he needed me the most I wasn’t there to catch him.
He was drowning and I would have let him. I was so angry at the idea of him cheating I never even considered whether it was an actual possibility. I was stubborn, immature and bitter. I was so mad at him for leaving I nearly let my own insecurities kill us both.
His palm rests on my cheek. His thumb rubbing soft gentle strokes where my tear had fallen and before I even opened my eyes I’m reaching for him. I turn in his lap as my lips find his and he instantly matches my energy.
“I’m so sorry. I love you so much.” I breathe, before kissing him again.
He lifts me up and lays me down on the bed. His hands bunching up the skirt of my dress around my waist as he kneels. Tossing my legs over his shoulders he rasps, “Let me taste your apology.”