Page 56 of The Jerk in Apartment 1B

“Moving back where?”

“With Asher.”

“The guy who kicked you out?” Scott asks, a hint of anger in his voice. “Are you serious?”

“I met with him today. He called and said he wanted to talk so we met at a coffee shop.”

“And?” Scott folds his arms over his chest. “What did he say?”

“That he didn’t think it through. He said he shouldn’t have just ended it like that. He said he needs more time.”

“More time for what?”

“To think about how to make it work with us.”

“Isn’t that something you two should decide together?”

He has a good point. But if Asher’s job is his issue when it comes to us being together, I can’t really help him with that.

“This is really more Asher’s issue than mine,” I explain. “He needs to find some balance in his life and not have it be so focused on work. Talking to him today, I think he’s finally realizing that.”

“Why? What did he say?”

“He talked about how much pressure he’s been under at work. I knew he was stressed, but he never told me why untiltoday. I guess there was some guy at his job that was doing better than him and he panicked and decided he had to put all his focus on his career. He didn’t think he had time for both a relationship and his job. That’s why he broke up with me.”

“So what’s he going to do? Get a less demanding job?”

“I doubt it, but I don’t really know. He’s still figuring out what he wants to do. He just wanted to meet to tell me he made a mistake. He said he acted on impulse instead of thinking it through.”

“That’s a big decision to make on an impulse. You two were planning to get married, and then he just dumps you? Tells you to leave?”

“He was stressed. He wasn’t thinking straight.”

“If you’re stressed, you deal with it by going to the gym. Taking a walk. Seeing a therapist. You don’t break up with the person you claim to love.”

“You don’t know Asher. He’s very driven and competitive. Having some guy at work doing better than him made Asher want to do everything possible to beat him. That’s just the type of guy he is.”

“Yeah, I know guys like him. I used to work with them. And let me tell you, they never change. They may say they will, but they don’t. They’re obsessed with getting ahead, even if it means sacrificing their family. By the time they’re in their fifties, they’ve been married and divorced two or three times. Their kids want nothing to do with them. Their health is suffering. And yet they don’t stop. They keep wanting to achieve the next big thing. It’s never enough.”

“That’s not Asher. He’s not like that. Back in college, I took school more seriously than he did.”

“That was college. He’s in the real world now. That’s different. I bet he changed after college, when he got his first job.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s because he was just starting out and had to prove himself. But he’s been at this job for three years now so he doesn’t have to keep working so hard.”

“Trust me, it only gets worse. You get promoted and they expect you to do more, not less. They expect you to be there on weekends and work holidays and never take time off.”

“That’s not true for every job.”

“It’s not about the job. It’s about the person. Those high-stress jobs go to people who can handle it. People who thrive on the pressure and the competition. Sounds like your ex is one of those people.”

“Maybe a little,” I admit, because that does sound like Asher. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll become like one of those guys you described. Asher doesn’t want his whole life to be about work. He wants a wife and a family.”

“And yet he broke up with you.”

“Because he was overwhelmed and not thinking straight.” I set my water down on the counter behind me. “We shouldn’t be talking about this. You’ve never even met Asher. You don’t know him like I do.”

Scott sighs. “So let me guess. You took him back.”

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