“Are you mad?”
“No, of course not,” said Paige. “It’s up to you what you feel comfortable telling your friends.”
“I mean, I’m a little mad,” said Evan. “We usually share these kinds of things.”
“Just because you’re an oversharer doesn’t mean Lauren has to be,” said Lindsay.
“Fine. I’ll forgive you, Lauren, if you buy the next round.”
Lauren laughed, despite feeling tense. “All right. But the thing is, I wonder if I made a mistake.”
“In what way?” asked Evan.
“I mean, I really like him. I think I was most of the way toward falling in love with him. And I gave him an ultimatum, which is so unlike me. But I needed him to make a decision about whether we were going to be together for real or not. I guess I got my answer.”
“Yeah,” said Paige.
“But I keep wondering if we could have worked things out if I’d just given him more time, or if I had been more understanding. I mean, he didjustget divorced. Like, maybe we would have been something really great if I hadn’t pushed him away.”
Everyone appeared to think on that for a moment.
“No,” said Paige. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
Lauren sighed. “Really?”
“If he can’t see how amazing you are, then he’s a fool, and you should not be with a fool.”
“I agree,” said Lindsay. “It sounds like he was never going to commit. You can’t wait around forever for him to figure things out. You were together for all those weeks. Shit or get off the pot, man.”
Lauren laughed. “Gross, but thanks?”
Evan looked at them all, his head tilted as if he was thinking hard.
“Well?” Lauren asked.
“I don’t want to say I told you so, but… I did tell you so. All those times we saw you fighting, you were really fighting and then finding a closet to fuck in, weren’t you?”
Lauren felt heat flood her face. “Maybe.”
“I don’t need details. This just goes to prove my larger theory that the two of you were basically meant for each other.”
“This is not helpful, Evan. You want me to go back to him?”
“No. Not at all. He’s an idiot if he can’t see that you’re the right woman for him. But maybe this is an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder thing. In fact, I hereby predict our dear Caleb will realize how dumb he was to let you go and come back with some big romantic gesture, and you, my dear, will swoon, and then marry him so hard, and I will expect my ten dollars paid in cash.”
“Evan, that’s insane.” Lauren didn’t see Caleb coming around.
Because keeping his distance would have been the easy thing. Relationships were hard. They took effort and commitment and time. They were wonderful, too, or Lauren wouldn’t be mourning the (non-)relationship with Caleb as much as she was, but likely Caleb was guilty of the same thing. It was easier not to get involved, not to put oneself out there, not to risk anything.
Caleb was right. Commitment was a risk. But it was a risk that had the potential to pay off in a wonderful way. Lauren was willing to take that risk, but if Caleb wasn’t, they were at an impasse.
“So what do you think I should do?” Lauren asked.
“Nothing,” the other three said in unison.
“Even you, Ev? You think I should do nothing.”
“Wait for him to come to you. Which he totally will. Because destiny.”
