“And that pays?”

“Yes.”

It was easier to agree than to go into the details of how advances worked.

That seemed to momentarily satisfy him because his attention shifted to Henry. He asked him super specific banking questions that were clearly directed only to Henry.

Great. I fucking understood Henry was a fucking hotshot douche-bag banker.

He’d graduated from fucking Harvard. I’d come to realize that people who went to Harvard all had one fucking thing in common. They made sure everyone fucking knew they had gone to Harvard.

Conversation was going on all around me, yet I didn’t seem to be included in anything. Ari was turning red with anger. My blood was boiling at the whole exchange. This wasn’t how you fucking treated people. Just because I wasn’t in line to become a CEO of a bank didn’t mean I wasn’t good enough for his daughter.

“Mother,” Ari snapped. “I’m sure you’re dying to get to know Grant better, aren’t you? He’s only here for one night before he has to go back out on tour.”

“Oh. Of course. Grant, how did you and Aribel meet?”

We exchanged a glance. It wasn’t exactly a family-friendly conversation.

I figured I’d fucking paraphrase. “Her roommates liked my band, so they got her to come to one of my shows. We hit it off from there.”

“Fascinating,” her mother said dryly.

“Okay. I can’t hold it in any longer,” Aaron said in frustration. “Did you sleep with Mary Beth Hensen?”

“Aaron! Oh my God!” Aribel cried.

“Let him answer the question,” Aaron said.

I shrugged my shoulders. How the fuck was I supposed to know if I’d slept with a chick? How many times had I met Kristin before I remembered who she was? Five or six, and I only remembered it because she was the cause of my fight with Aribel. I was horrible with names and faces.

“I don’t know.”

“How could you not know?” Henry asked.

“Stay out of this,” Ari growled. “Grant, ignore them. They have no right to interrogate you.”

“Seriously? You can’t remember if you slept with her? It was my best friend’s girlfriend.”

Aribel smacked her forehead with her hand and sighed dramatically. “So fucking ridiculous.”

“Language!” her mother cried.

“This is like a circus. Fuck,” I mumbled. “I don’t know if I slept with your friend’s chick. If that’s what you’re holding over my head, then there’s not much I can fucking do for you. I never forced anyone to have sex with me. So, she must have been willing.”

The table went silent, but all eyes were on me.

Great.

I must have fucked up and pulled some social faux pas, but no one was freaking out that Aaron had brought up me having sex with some other chick in the first place.

“Aribel,” her father said. Disapproval rang clear in his voice.

I couldn’t stand for it. They couldn’t talk to her or look at her like that.

“Hey!” I cried. “You can’t be disappointed with her. She’s brilliant, beautiful, strong, hard-working, and unbelievably confident. Look down on me for whatever bullshit you’ve thought up in your head. I’m poor with no college education and no real job. I’m everything you wanted to keep away from her, but you can blame me for that. You can’t fucking look down on her—not her, never her. She’s spotless, pristine, and she’s the best goddamn thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I stood up from the table and tossed my napkin down.

“You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”

In horror, I watched Grant walk out of the dining room through the back door and outside. How had it all gone so horribly wrong so fast?

“Good Lord, Aribel,” my mother said. “What kind of person did you bring into our home?”

“This will not do,” my father said.

I closed my eyes for two seconds and tried to calm down.

Grant and I might have had our problems in the past, but we’d worked through them. We had figured out how to have a real relationship despite our differences. With him on tour, we had tried to trust each other, work through the issues with his dad, my parents, our friends, and so far, we had come out ahead. There was no way I was going to stand by and let me family insult him for their prejudice.

“I cannot believe you all treated my boyfriend like that.” My voice came out steady as I slowly rose to my feet. “None of you know him. None of you have any clue of the kind of person he is!”

“Your brother and Henry were both very clear about the kind of person he is,” my father said.

“Neither of them know him!” I cried. “You’re all going off of a stupid prejudice, and I’m over it. I’m done.”

I left the table and walked toward the door.

Henry tried to stop me. “Aribel, wait. Be reasonable,” he said.

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled at him.

“How can you go after him? He yelled at you at the concert. It was completely unwarranted. Aaron tells me he’s slept with half of Princeton. He’s on tour and probably sleeping with a different girl in every city. And now, he made a fool of himself in front of everyone.”

“So, this is what you think of him? This is what you all think of my judgment?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“We want what’s best for you, honey,” my mother said.

“I don’t want you getting caught up with someone who is going to take advantage of you,” Aaron explained.

“Is that so?” I asked, feeling my anger bubbling up.

My father looked me square in the eyes. He didn’t have to say anything to me in that moment. I knew that he agreed with them.

“You want what’s best for me? And you think the best for me is…Henry?” I asked.

No one answered directly, but I knew. Henry even smiled as if he believed I was finally in on the secret. From the beginning, I’d known that my family was trying to pit us together.

“Well, that truly shows you how shitty your judge of character is! Henry has hounded me to see me when I’ve told him I wanted to be left alone. He got me drunk after New Year’s and tried to take advantage of me, and then he did so again in my hotel room in New York City on my birthday. He’s an asshole, who is just trying to get an in with me so that he can get another promotion in the company. Think about the person you’re trying to set me up with when you’re pushing my boyfriend away.”