“Oh yeah. I’m the weirdone.”
“Weird I can handle. Right now you’re beingcallous.”
“Callous?!I’mbeingcallous?”
“Are you just going to repeat everything I say? Or is there anything you can tell me that would enlighten me as to why you’re suddenly behaving likethis?
“No—I don’t know if you’re aware of this—but most of your family is callous and rude to you—and I stood up for you because I cared about your feelings—but since then you’ve barely spoken to me until you started yelling at me in the middle of LAX! Please tell me—what would be a more appropriate way for me to behave at thispoint?!”
People passing by turn their heads to watch and listen, but when they realize we aren’t celebrities having a public fight, they keepmoving.
He lowers his voice. “I happen to be very aware of how my family treats me, Erin, and what you said to them means more to me than you’ll ever know. But in what world is it okay for you to take a cab home by yourself after the weekend we just had together, when we live two miles away from eachother?”
“It’s not okay, Scott, none of this has been okay. We’ve been fooling ourselves thinking we could work together and fool around and go on a weekend work date in New York. But you know what—it’s over—we’re done. We now have zero obligations to each other, and I for one have no more weddings on my calendar for the rest of the year, so we canjust…”
He’s looking at me like he’s confused and angry, but he seems to be donetalking.
“Bye,” I say, as I bolt out the automaticdoors.
I don’t look back, but I don’t hear him call out to me and he doesn’t catch up with me. For the first time in the history of Erin Duffy—I am first in line for a cab, so there is no time for me to wait and see if he’ll come after me, but I know he wouldn’t. He’s a stubborn jerk. Takes one to knowone.
I can’t even cry, I’m so mad at myself for telling him we aren’t dating and then opening up to him anyway. I don’t even have a rational reason for feeling rejected and that’s infuriating. I will just have to avoid seeing or talking to him for the rest of my life. There’s no way around it—he makes me feel toomuch.
It makes no sense. I feel more hurt now than I did when my boyfriend dumped me for a Frenchgirl.
Surprisingly,Maya is at home when I get back. As soon as I enter the apartment, she shuffles over to greet me, in her yoga clothes and wool slippers. “How wasit?”
My fake smile is so grand, it makes my face feel weird and causes her to wince. “It wasawesome!”
“Oh no. Whathappened?”
“Nothing. New York really wasawesome.”
“Erin. This isme.”
“I know. Hi. Our time in New York was wonderful. And now we are back in L.A. and we’ve finished our script, so things are going back to the way they were, and that’s a good thing. I’m fine. How are you? Should we orderfood?”
I go to my room, drop my bags, and sigh. I check my phone for the hundredth time, to make sure Scott still hasn’t called or texted. Hehasn’t!
Maya wouldn’t be my best friend if she didn’t know that the right thing to do would be to follow me and stop asking how thingswent.
“Um. Is now an okay time to talk? Not about your thing—somethingelse.”
“What? Why? What? Oh shit,what?”
“Calm down, I have to tell you something. Sitdown.”
I sit down on the edge of my bed and she joins me. “What? Shit. Are you movingout?”
“Well…”
“Shit. Tellme.”
“Just calm down…I’m gettingmarried.”
“What? That’s not funny. Come on. Don’t joke aboutthat.”
“Why would I joke aboutthat?”
