Mat Barzal - What Real Support Looks Like

Part 7

"Tito, what are you doing here?"

Gemma was absolutely flummoxed. She was already unsure about what she was going to do with Mat, and now Tito had shown up to add even more complications to the situation.

"Look, I understand you don't want to see me, but I have to talk to you about that night."

"If you're here to defend Mat, then I don't want to hear it..."

"That's not what this is about," Tito cut her off. "I am not here to excuse his behavior, but you don't know the whole story of how he even showed up drunk at your apartment in the first place, and I think you have a right to know."

Now he had her attention. "I'm listening," Gemma said. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Did Mat tell you I was seeing someone for the past two months?"

"No." Gemma had no idea how this was related to her relationship, but Tito seemed extremely anxious, as if he really needed to get something off his chest, and she felt she had to listen to him. It wasn't his fault Mat had fucked up so royally, and Tito was a genuinely nice person.

"Well, I really liked her; I might have even loved her, but she started ghosting me a little over a week ago. I was trying to contact her to no avail until she showed up at my apartment on Wednesday afternoon while Mat and I were playing video games." Tito's eyes were shining with tears, and he took a deep breath. "She stood there in the doorway, said I was naïve to think that she would even consider dating a dumb jock like me, and turned around and left without saying another word."

Gemma gasped. She felt badly, she really did, but the selfish part of her wanted Tito to cut to the chase. Gemma was good at reading people, and the vibes Tito was giving off indicated that he had something he really wanted to tell her, but whatever it was made him feel ashamed. This made Gemma want to know what it was even more, but she forced herself to stay patient and soften her expression a little bit to let him know she was sympathetic.

"I was a fucking wreck afterwards," Tito continued. "Mat knew she wasn't in it for real and he had tried to prepare me before, but I didn't listen. At that point, all I wanted to do was forget about the entire day, so I dragged Mat out for drinks. He didn't really want to go because he said it was your birthday and he was taking you out for dinner, but he eventually agreed to go for a little while. He called a bunch of the other guys to come to the bar so that he could leave, but it backfired. We all got so wasted, and the last time I saw him, he was stumbling out the door."

Tito was silent for a moment, probably to give Gemma a chance to process everything, but she realized something. "Did you just say he didn't forget my birthday?" Gemma raised her voice. "What happened to 'I'm not here to excuse his behavior'? Because you clearly are."

"I swear to God, Gemma, he remembered before we went to the bar..."

"Hey! Did you hear her?" Annie scolded Tito, the first time she spoke since they came back to the Eberles. "She asked you not to excuse his behavior. Gemma's gone through enough as it is without you coming here and dredging all of those feelings up again."

Tito quickly put his hands in the air to indicate he had come in peace. "I'm not trying to excuse his...wait a minute," he pointed at her. "You're Annie. You scared the crap out of Mat yesterday," he said with more than a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Good," Annie replied curtly. "Now if you would get to the point of your little sob story and put her out of her misery, that'd be deadly."