Post by TGC on Oct 19, 2023 20:12:14 GMT -5
I sat down on the opposite side of the table. “You’re late.” He said, in his typical aloof voice. God, even when he messages me after months apart saying he wants to talk, he still can’t stop acting like he doesn’t give a shit.
“I had work, okay?” I said, already on the defensive. That was always how it was with him, if it wasn’t pretending not to care, it was constantly keeping me justifying myself. Both were defense mechanisms to keep criticism as far away from him as possible, I’d realized around the time I’d left him.
“Should have thought about that.” He still can’t stop blaming me for everything. He’s the one who set the time and place, he didn’t ask what time was good for me. That’s really what the biggest issue was, the fact he couldn’t see himself as being at fault in any fucking situation.
We both stayed silent for a moment. I didn’t know what he was waiting for, he didn’t say what the point of meeting up was. Eventually, I just said screw it and broke the silence. “Bart doesn’t miss you.”
“That damn cat never liked me in the first place.”
“Yeah, that was the first red flag I ignored.”
He rolled his eyes. “And what were the others?”
I looked up as if I had to think, though I really didn’t. “Eating at Chic-Fil-A, having an opinion on the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, hating all my friends-”
“Your friends just want you to be miserable and alone like them. I know those types of people: Bitter, broken women who hate any man that threatens to disrupt the balance of their codependent coalition of self pity.”
I scoffed, shaking my head in exasperation. “Funny, they like my current boyfriend.”
“Oh, are they the ones who suggested you cheat on me with him?”
I was slightly caught off guard. Kinda walked into that one, in hindsight. Eventually, I managed to think of something to say, though even now I’m not sure what I aimed to accomplish with it. “I believe it was you who said it was perfectly fine to have sex with someone else while ‘on a break’.”
“Are you kidding me? God, I would not have showed up here if I knew you were gonna start trying to argue about fucking Friends. What even is the damn point of us meeting here, actually?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair. We both sat in silence for another small eternity. I was more than happy to let him break the silence this time. It’d only be fair, since I’d taken the responsibility of doing so the first time, but he seemed rather happy to give the silent treatment. I eventually relented, and spoke up, though I was already nearing my wits end.
“For the record, my friends thought I was an idiot for cheating on you with Monty, but I’m not in a relationship with Monty, I was talking about a different guy.”
“So you really can’t keep a guy around for more than two months, huh?”
“Oh, fuck you.” I raised my voice, getting up out of my chair. “I don’t know why I even responded to that stupid message, I should have known the only reason you’d want to meet up was to have some stupid fucking slap fight.”
His exasperation seemed to have a hint of confusion in it. “Ben, you’re the one who wanted to meet up, not me. I was content to never see your cheating ass ever again.”“No, shut up, don’t try to fucking gaslight me, this is what you always fucking do!”
“Ben-”
“You always fucking did this, nothing could ever be your fault, it was always ‘I misheard this’ or ‘I didn’t read your text correctly’, it was always on me!”
“I didn’t-”
“Because your fragile little fucking ego couldn’t handle being wrong about even the smallest fucking thing!”
“Ben, people are staring.”
“You’re the one who wanted to meet in the middle of the fucking park, at 12 fucking PM, on a fucking sunday!”
“No, I didn’t! You’re the one who texted me!” He got up out of his chair, meeting me at my level.
I closed my eyes for a second. He really thinks I’m that stupid, huh? Yeah, no, I’m not putting up with it.
“Fuck this.” I turned and started walking away, pulling out my phone to call an Uber.
“I will show you the text.” He started speedwalking to catch up to me.
“I don’t care.”
“I will show you the fucking text.”
“Fuck off.”
He forced his phone into my hand. I relented, as I always seem to do with him, and read what was on the screen.
“Hey, it’s me, Ben.” The gray message on the left read. “I’ve been thinking about things, and I want to talk with you in person, so we can get some proper closure. Meet me at the park where we had our first date this Sunday at 12pm.”
Below it laid two green messages. “What exactly will we be talking about?” The first one said, the receipt under it showing that it had been read less than ten minutes after it was sent. The second message was simply three question marks, also read practically immediately.
I stared at his screen for a few seconds, confusion clear on my face. I handed his phone back, redirecting my attention to my own. “I got basically the same text, look.”
I opened the messages app of my own phone, and lo and behold, a near identical exchange from around the same time, only I had responded with simply “Um, okay? I’ll probably be a few minutes late.”
“Huh. That’s the same number as mine.” He held his phone up next to mine, confirming what he had said. Indeed, both messages were sent from the same number, 233-534-1589.
We both just stood in silence for a moment, letting the information process in our heads. As had become tradition in the past few minutes, I broke the silence.
“Then who...” I started looking around the park, trying to see if there was anyone watching us. He quickly joined in, scanning the area. For that one moment, we were united in confusion. Nobody around us looked out of the ordinary. He sighed, shaking his head.
“Whatever. Whoever brought us together, I don’t know what they thought it would accomplish, all it did was confirm you’re still the toxic asshole you were when we broke up.”
I didn’t stop him when he walked away. I just stood there, baffled.