Never Judge

"It\'s the truth." Al said as he shrugged. "It would be a lie to say I loved any of them. They all knew that entering the relationship with me. I never even touched any of them."

"Not even a kiss?" Eric asked with a raised eyebrow, unable to believe that his cousin had never kissed a woman.

"Not even." Al replied, grinning. 

He loved Cara too much to be able to even show any affection towards the girls he dated.

"Why did you even date, Al?" Emilio questioned his cousin. "I\'m sure Cara has heard about you having a different woman on your arm every month. She won\'t appreciate that."

Al sighed and frowned.

"I\'m not proud of the reason." He confessed. 

"It\'s not like you have a lot to hide from us." Eric pointed out.

What Eric said was true, out of their generation it was the three of them that were the closest. Eric and Emilio both knew about Al\'s true feelings, especially towards Cara. 

That\'s why it had always puzzled them why Al dated so much.

They knew how much he loved the woman who got away, they knew how desperate Al was to get her back.

They had seen over the years how much Al wanted to be with Cara. How hard he worked just to find Cara\'s brother, Colin, so that she could come back. 

Unfortunately for Al, the people Colin worked with were always a step ahead. 

Ray wanted to help, but ruling the underworld and running the Lawrence family businesses took quite a lot of time and effort. 

Al had all his father\'s resources at his disposal, but he still had a long way to go. 

"During the first few years I was so desperate for Cara to return but my pride was to high to speak to her, so I thought making her jealous was the way." Al admitted.

Emilio and Eric both burst out laughing as they stood by the entrance of the event hall.

"Are you really that stupid?" Emilio asked. "I mean it\'s only common sense that that won\'t work."

Al shrugged as he entered the hall, greeting several distinguished members of the business world who had been invited to the party.

Emilio and Eric also both mingled with a few people. 

"Your former teammates are all in good positions now, yes?" Al asked Emilio as they made their way to the table reserved for them. 

"They got those promotions because they were a capable group, not because they worked with me." Emilio said as he crossed his arms on his chest.

He had heard from his friends about how some employees spoke behind their backs, talking about how all of them were now managers. 

"I know they did." Al shrugged.

"So how long did it take you to realize how stupid it was to try and get Cara jealous?" Eric asked as he spoke in a low enough voice so that others wouldn\'t hear.

"It took around three months." Al admitted as he looked around, checking if his parents were coming up to scold him.

He knew he had gone off script with what he had said and it was sure to cause a scandal, his father hated scandals and his mother hated being part of it. 

"So three girls?" Emilio asked, to which Al simply responded by nodding.

"Why did you keep dating even after that?" Eric questioned. "You already knew that it wouldn\'t work, as a matter of fact I think it even made things worse for you. Cara probably now thinks that you\'re some playboy."

Al sighed and looked down.

He really didn\'t understand why he continued to date, but he knew all those relationships were empty. 

As a matter of fact, every time one of the girls started to get attached he would make sure to dump them. 

"At first I said it was because my dad wanted me to attend so many events that I needed a date to keep me entertained." Al confessed.

"But you never paid them much attention either." Emilio smirked. 

"It was a lie I kept telling myself in order to justify what I was doing." Al nodded. "In truth, I was just dating women to hide how lonely I was without Cara."

Emilio nodded, understanding how much guilt now coursed through his cousin. 

It was the first time Al was attending an event without a woman on his arms.

As a matter of fact they had noticed that Al had stopped dating three months ago, something they all found odd.

When he had heard that Al was leaving the country after the party to fetch Cara, it all made sense. 

Al wanted to make sure that Cara could see he was with no one. That he was single and he was ready for her. 

"It\'s not going to be easy to win her back. I don\'t even know if she will come with you when you pick her up. Women are interesting creatures." Emilio said, laughing as he thought of his own relationship.

He had been dating one of his friends for a few months, but she surprisingly broke things off all of a sudden.

Emilio was still trying to figure out what had gone wrong in his own relationship.

"And now I have a feeling, the fact that you kept dating will come to bite you in the ass." Eric chuckled as he spoke to his cousin. 

"Of course you would know that, Eric." Al said as he rolled his eyes at Eric.

Emilio could tell that there was something Al knew that Eric thought he didn\'t.

"What\'s that supposed to mean?" Eric grumbled, looking a little bit nervous. 

"Don\'t pretend not to know, Eric." Al grinned at his cousin, making a shiver crawl up his spine. Al was born to be in the underworld, that was for sure.

"I really don\'t know what you are trying to say." Eric managed to say as he tried to hide his fear of his own cousin.

"Eric, I know she still talks to you." Al said smiling at Eric, clearly jealous of the attention the actor was getting from the woman he loved.