Seb smiled and shook his head. “It was very clearly coming for a long time, Em. There was no future there,” he said.
“Yeah, even I saw that,” Jason said. He was taking it way too well, considering he might have just lost his teacher. “I was done with all the baking, to be honest.”
Well, that explained that. Emily rolled her eyes. “But you were so happy,” she said.
“I guess,” Seb said. “But there were just too many complications.”
“Like what?” Emily asked.
“Logistics, to begin with. She's moving back home after graduation, and I'm not leaving here. So…”
“But we still have months until graduation,” Emily pointed out, trying to make sense of the sudden change.
“Why are you so upset about it anyway? I didn't think you even liked her all that much,” Seb said accusingly.
“Of course I did,” Emily said defensively.
“Yeah, right,” Jason chimed in.
“I did,” Emily insisted.
“Okay,” Seb said, raising his hands in surrender.
***
They never spoke about the breakup, not until a few months later when Emily broke it off with Jason. A surprisingly mature and adult breakup. They even decided to stay in touch.
“I'll miss the dude,” Emily told Seb, when he dragged her to the bar and pumped her up with alcohol while he sipped his beer. “I mean, I'm relieved, but he was so nice, you know?” she lamented.
“Sure,” Seb said.
“He was just starting to explore grilling. I was excited about that too,” she said.
“Mm-hmm,” Seb said, from her side. Were they always sitting on the same side of the booth?
“I think he can be a really good chef,” Emily nodded. Jason was creative enough to do that.
“That would need him to stick to it for more than a couple of months,” Seb commented, with a note of snide in his tone.
Emily turned to look at him and his serious expression. His pursed lips made her laugh for some reason. She laughed and didn't stop until tears were rolling down her cheeks.
“I'm sorry, Em,” Seb said when she finally collected herself and rested her head on Seb's shoulder. She was starting to feel very heavy.
“You have a comfortable shoulder,” she told him.
“Thanks,” he said. He sounded sad, so Emily looked at him again. She didn't get a good view, so she straightened herself.
Seb was looking at her too. And he was still looking so, so sad. Emily didn't like how his lips curved downwards. She reached out with her thumb and index finger to point them upwards. Then, she kissed him on the mouth.
He kissed back almost immediately, and they made out very sloppily until Seb suddenly backed off.
“Fuck,” he said. He was sad again.
Wait, what was Emily doing? “Oh god, I'm so sorry,” she said. She felt like all the alcohol she had consumed had metabolized within seconds.
“You're drunk,” Seb said.
“Yes, that's it. I'm drunk,” she nodded vigorously. It had, after all, been the best stupidity defence for centuries.
