Page 15 of Lovesick
“That proves nothing except people want it and they pay for it.”
“Love and romance are built inside us.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “They’re instincts.”
I scoffed. “Love and romance are totally different.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are they?”
My response faltered before I decided to sidestep that and focus on something else. Because I honestly didn’t know. Romance and I were not friends. Not since my ex-girlfriend Stacey pulled my heart out with her bare hands and stomped on it. Love?
Even worse.
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked.
The expression on her face dimmed. “No.”
“In a relationship?”
She shook her head.
Interesting that someone of her intelligence would buy into such a ... naive scheme. Doubly interesting that she’d never been in a relationship. What kind of idiots at her college had lethergo? Then again, if she’d never been heartbroken, maybe it was easy to hold on to the hope that storybook romance was real.
“Can you tell me why you think it saves lives?” I asked.
“In the same way that anythinggoodsaves lives. Maybe it inspires hope. Stops people from doing something stupid. Helps someone feel like they belong. Creates safety.” Her angled jaw highlighted the challenge in her stare. I wondered if she was upset by my questions. She seemed nothing but determined.
“Inspiring hope doesn’t save lives.”
“What if you’re on the verge of suicide but you find hope again through love?”
My mouth opened, then closed. She stared hard at me now. Did she want me to protest, or something? Because I would, once I found my voice again. This was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard.
“Romance also destroys,” I said.
She tilted her head. “In what way?”
“Romance is just as destructive as it is hopeful. What about hearts that get crushed? Relationships that don’t make it? Love that’s one-sided? Romance is the kind of thing people never recover from in the worst way.”
Lizbeth regarded me for a second. The question seemed to hover on the tip of her tongue.Who broke your heart, JJ?I imagined her asking.
But I wouldn’t tell.
Not yet, anyway. And she didn’t ask, which earned her a point of respect in my mind.
“But that’s not romance,” she replied. “That’s manipulation.Trueromance is two-sided.”
“Disagree.”
She smiled. “That’s fine. I’m not trying to convert you to a religion, JJ.”
Then why did I feel like a spotlight was shining on me and holy water awaited? I licked my lips. “I’ve never thought of love or romance the way you’ve talked about it,” I admitted to soften my next blow. “And I think it sounds totally...”
“Insane?” she supplied.
“Unrealistic.”
“You think because I haven’t been in a relationship before, nor been in love, that I couldn’t know what I’m talking about.”
My silence spoke for me. Her grin broadened, clearly unbothered.
