“You’d broken up with me. You’d ended things between us long before,” I say.
Lara laughs, and it sounds bitter. “That doesn’t mean that I’d ever have been okay with you dating my sister,” she says. She looks at me for just a moment and I can see the tears glinting in her eyes. “I need to get a paper towel.”
She gets up and walks into the kitchen, and I’m too shocked by what she said to even think about insisting on doing it myself. She comes back a moment later with two paper towels, and tosses one in my direction. I grab it before it can land on top of the pizza closest to me.
“Don’t you think it hurt me when you broke us up?” I ask.
Lara raises an eyebrow at my comment and sits down heavily, snagging another piece of pizza for herself.
“Of course it hurt you, but it hurt me too,” she says.
“So, you’re supposed to be able to move on, but I’m not?”
I’m starting to regret inviting her over for dinner. Maybe Lara was right. Maybe it was a big mistake for us to ever discuss our past.
“No. Look, I just…” Lara sighs. She takes a bite of her pizza and just stares at the carpet for a few moments.
“What?” In spite of knowing that it’s probably a terrible idea, I can’t help but be curious as to what she has to say.
“Why did you have to date my sister? My sister, Ethan.”
“Because… Alexis and I agreed to never say anything, but,” I take a deep breath and continue, “under the circumstances I think you should know. It was a one-night stand with your sister. We were at the same bar and we just started talking. I had a bit too much to drink and did she. It wasn’t supposed to happen. And it wasn’t supposed to happen with her.”
The words just tumble out of me and I feel lighter, but Lara is the last person I ever thought I would tell this too.
“A one-night stand?” Lara says quietly.
“Yes. Riley was conceived that night. Alexis told me a few weeks later that she was pregnant. She did not want to end the pregnancy and I supported her decision.”
“Ethan, I never knew this. I know that things happened pretty quickly, but I figured it was because you were trying to hide the relationship from me. I guessed that Riley was a surprise…”
“Given that you cut Alexis out of your life as soon as we told you that we were together and then that she was pregnant with my child, how could we tell you it was the result of a one-night stand? Did you call your sister every time you started seeing someone?”
“I guess not.”
“You even stopped talking to your parents,” I say. I remember going over to the house and it was like a cloud was hanging over everything without her there.
“They took Alexis’ side and I felt betrayed.”
“I know but she was pregnant. Neither of us did this to hurt you. We decided to make the most of the situation. As I said, Alexis did not want to end the pregnancy and I supported her. You know I wanted children. We decided to tell friends and family about the relationship first and then break the news about the pregnancy later. Our marriage was not perfect, but Riley is, and she is the reason for everything.”
Lara looks down at the carpet.
“I had no idea,” she says quietly.
“The funny thing was that I went over to her that night in the bar to ask her how you were doing. We just started talking. I bought Alexis a drink. One thing led to another. Here I am almost two and a half years later.”
Lara starts fiddling with her hands.
“What happened between your sister and me that night was wrong. However, my beautiful Riley came from that and I will be forever grateful to your sister.”
We both go back to eating pizza for a few moments.
“You started dating my sister, and it was like… all the stuff that I’d wanted, that I’d dreamed of having with you, you just… gave it to her,” Lara says.
“You didn’t want it with me!” I say to her. In my mind I can see Alexis’ face all the times her mother or father had told her that Lara had refused to go to some family event because she and I would be there.
“I did! The reason I broke up with you was because I didn’t think I’d ever get it with you!” Lara looks me dead in the eyes, and I can hear the pain in her cracking voice and see it written all over her face.
“So, because you weren’t patient enough to wait for me to be ready, you had to punish your sister?”
“She hooked up with my ex-boyfriend,” Lara says.
“Ex-boyfriend,” I say. “We were broken up. It was years ago. There has to be a statute of limitations on these things.”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” Lara insists.
“Why not? I mean, there wasn’t anything between us anymore. You were the one who’d ended things between us.”
Lara opens her mouth to speak and then closes it, and I see her take a deep breath again, she’s obviously trying to keep herself under control.
“There are certain things you don’t do. You don’t date your ex’s family members, and you don’t date your sister’s ex. It’s an unwritten law,” she insists.
“So that’s why you had to punish her for the rest of her life?”
Lara sighs. “I wasn’t punishing her. I just couldn’t stand to be around the two of you. Imagine being stabbed in the back, and then having to basically have the knife taken out and stabbed back into you every holiday.” She wipes her face with her paper towel and chews on the crust of the pizza in her hand thoughtfully.
“I’m sorry we hurt you,” I say, and I mean it.
“I’m sorry I never really reconciled with Alexis,” Lara
