Page 45 of Love Unavoidable
“Well then, how are you planning to find a place to live somewhere else?”
He has a point.
“Look,” he says. “Just pay rent once you get a job. How’s that sound?”
“I don’t know, Ethan.”
“Don’t know what? What’s the problem?”
“No problem, but if we are going to do this, then we will not be having our hook-up like originally planned.”
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“The night of the wedding, we were coming back here to have sex. Since then I’ve still wanted to have sex, and you have held off. So, now, we are holding off for good. Sex is off the table if I’m living here.”
“Wait a minute, I thought we were starting something, you and me.”
“Starting something? We’re supposed to start something when I was engaged less than a month ago and you sleep with hundreds of women a year and I’m living in your sexual den of iniquity? Are you kidding me?”
He looks confused. And hurt.
“You’re exaggerating, don’t you think? Plus, I thought you didn’t love him?” he asks.
“I don’t.”
“Then I don’t see how that point applies. And obviously, if I’m starting something with you, I won’t be seeing anyone else which wipes out points two and three. So none of your protests apply.”
“Look, Ethan, I’ve been with one guy my entire life. You’ve pretty much never been with the same girl more than once. This thing between us is not something that would ever work, anyway. I need to go out, meet new people, date different guys, see what life has to offer me besides Aaron. And you, maybe you should try asking someone for a second date once in a while. You know, see how it feels to actually get to know someone.”
“I’m getting to know you,” he says.
“I don’t count.”
“How can you say you don’t count?”
I shrug my shoulders. I don’t have an answer that will appease him; I know that much for certain.
“This is ridiculous.”
“That’s your opinion.” I stand and move to head down the hallway to my room. “Tell me this, Ethan. If sex is off the table, does the offer still stand to rent a room?”
“Of course. Don’t be silly.”
“Okay. Just checking. Good night.”
As I am walking down the hall, I hear him say aloud, “What in the actual fuck just happened?”
And it makes me want to cry.
