“Is it?”
“It certainly is in LA. We ladies get put on the shelf young.”
“Areyoudating anyone?”
I pause before answering. I’m worried this conversation is getting too personal.
“No. I broke up with a guy a few months ago, before the reunion.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Uh, I found out he owned a sword.”
“Are youserious?”
“No. He was a boring careerist. I got tired of him droning on and on about his finance job.”
Belatedly, I realize Seth also has a professional job, and might worry that I findhimboring. Which I don’t.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” he says. “If you wanted it to.”
“Thanks. I didn’t. We were only together a few months. No big deal.”
“Do you want to find someone? Like, get married and have kids and all that?”
I don’t really think about it that much. I don’t put much stock in relationships to dictate my future. But I guess, if some miracle happened, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.
“Uh, maybe. If I found the right person.”
It occurs to me that we’re having a conversation about marriage and life plans. I need to back off.
“Um. Is this weird?” I ask.
“Is what weird?”
“You know, talking about ourfeelings?”
“I don’t think so. It’s nice.”
“It’s kind of intense, actually,” I say.
“Well, you can hang up if you can’t handle the heat, Marks,” he says with a sharp laugh. “I know you sometimes have trouble finishing what you’ve started.”
Whoa.
That was needlessly barbed from anyone I’m trying to be nice to—let aloneSeth.
“Excuse you,” I say, not hiding my offense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just a joke.”
But we both know it isn’t.
“Really? It sounded like a dig.”
“No, I was just referencing what you said at the reunion. That you’re scared of intimacy.”
“Wrong,” I shoot back. “If I recall, I said I was scared of losing you in high school, so I broke up with you to avoid being hurt. That’s not the same thing.”
