“Okay,” said Paige. “But I swear, I never meant—”
“It’s okay. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’sweird. But it’s okay.”
Paige tried to take that to heart. Maybe with time, Lauren would get used to the idea and everything would work out. Because the difficult part of this situation was that Paige could feel herself falling in love with Josh. She’d never been in love before, but she figured the way she felt about Josh, the warmth in her chest she felt when she saw him, the way she thought about him at random times of the day, the sweet way he’d tried to distract her from this uncomfortable situation the night before… Well, Josh was amazing and Paige would be a fool to walk away from that. But if Lauren didn’t come around, what would she do?
“Is this going to be like that episode ofFriendswhen Joey dates Phoebe’s twin?” asked Evan. “At first you’re all like, ‘Why not?’ But then it gets ooky.”
“Time will tell,” said Lauren, which wasn’t encouraging.
But Paige supposed that was that. They all drank silently for a few minutes. It seemed like permission, but Paige was still worried about how this might damage her relationship with Lauren, if this would drive a wedge through her whole friend group. She liked Josh, but she wasn’t in love with him, at least not yet. But Lauren was like a sister. These people at this table, they’d become her family. Having to choose between them sucked, but she knew she’d choose Lauren.
“Well, now that that’s out of the way, can we talk about me now?” Evan asked.
Lauren laughed, which made Paige feel a little better.
“Sure, Ev,” said Lauren.
“Okay, so, Darius was also at the dinner party I went to last night, so I took him home. And instead of sexing him up like I should have, I asked him why he dumped me the last time, since he never really gave me a reason, and I decided that if I’m going to keep seeing him, I need to know. And do you know what he told me?”
Well, this would probably be dramatic. Hoping it would deflect attention from the tension she still felt between herself and Lauren, Paige said, “Is he still the worst?”
“The very worst. So here’s what happened.” Evan mimed rolling up his sleeves. “You may recall that the last time I went out with Darius was around the time I quit my job to go freelance. There was one night when he and I were out at dinner before I quit my job but after I’d made the decision to leave the company. And I was telling Darius all about my plans. And he was like, ‘Gee, it seems like a bad idea, the freelance market is unreliable income, wouldn’t it make more sense to stick with what you know and the reliable paycheck?’ And blah blah blah.”
“I remember that,” said Lauren.
“Right. And I explained to Darius like I was talking to my parents that I already had some jobs lined up and I had a good savings cushion and I was being very responsible and so on. And Darius let it drop, but he dumped me a few days later. I had always kind of assumed he met someone else, but no. He dumped me the day after I quit my job because he’s such a flipping control freak he was bothered by the fact that I didn’t listen to his career advice.”
“Are you kidding?” said Lindsay.
“Nope. And I think his pride was tied up in it, too. Like, he couldn’t date acreative person.”
“That must have narrowed his dating pool quite a bit,” said Lauren.
Evan smiled. “I know. At least when I had a job at a big ad agency, I was part of the corporate world. I wasn’t anartist, perish the thought. He wanted to be with someone who had career stability and some boring, traditional job. Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional jobs, and I like stability, too, but he had no faith in me. I’m very good at what I do and always have a decent stable of clients. But Darius never had faith that I could pull it off.”
“So he dumped you rather than supported you, in other words,” said Paige.
“It’s making me rethink some things now. Do I really want to be with someone like that? Even if he’s gotten over that train of thought, he may only be interested in me now because I have a successful business. He’s so petty and untrusting that he needed me to do exactly what he wanted me to do or he couldn’t be with me.”
“That’s stupid,” said Lindsay.
“Iknow,” said Evan.
“You’ve had reservations about this guy all along,” said Lauren. “At least you know the whole truth now.”
“Did you dump him?” asked Lindsay.
“I did,” said Evan. “Nice try, Darius, but I can’t be with someone that manipulative. I mean, he started lecturing me on accounting software and then tried to refer me to some friend of his who handles insurance, and I was like, nope. Not doing this. So that’s the end of that.”
Paige sat back in her chair and contemplated her own situation. She’d dated a Darius or two over the years. They couldn’t believe she would quit a well-paying corporate job to work at a cat café. One of the things she really liked about Josh is that he respected her career choices. She couldn’t picture him ever telling her what to do or getting mad if he didn’t follow her advice.
And yet she still had misgivings and doubts. Sitting here listening to Evan was a sobering reminder that not every relationship was meant to be. Should she listen to her heart, which told her to go for it with Josh, or her head, which told her there were a lot of ways it could go wrong?
Lauren was one of her best friends. And she still kept shooting Paige disapproving looks. Josh had said last night that Lauren had protested primarily because their relationship put Lauren in an awkward position. And Paige didn’t think the tension at the table now was just in her imagination.
So where did that leave things?
“Earth to Paige,” said Evan.
