Page 44 of Grounded
"It's not the same for women. We get attached. Plus I'm not ready to start dating yet."
"You don't have to date to get laid."
"Have you heard from your mom?" she deflects. "Are they on their way home?"
"Pretty sure they'll be back in the next hour."
"Great, I'm having cereal for dinner."
She grabs a bowl and Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the cupboard.
Instead of sitting next to me, she decides to eat standing up.
"How was work?"
"You don't have to pretend to be interested in my life," she says through a mouthful of cereal.
"Hey, don't we have an hour?" I check my watch to confirm the time. "Let's practice this nice hour you contracted me into."
"Ugh, it was fine."
"You give me so much to work with."
"It's a coffee shop, Theo. I make coffee, I serve coffee, I drink coffee. Not much happens."
"Any crazy customers requesting asinine drink orders?"
"No, you didn't come in today."
I laugh at her playful jab. "You forgot about the rules of the nice hour."
"I'm still getting used to you being here, let alone shoving my feelings aside for sixty minutes."
"Is it really that difficult for you?"
"I don't know anymore. All I know is a friendship with you seems impossible."
"I'm not asking to be best friends. I don't want us at each other's throats anytime we are in the same room together."
"I'm doing my best, given the circumstances. I feel like everyone has overlooked the fact I'm no longer with the man I thought was my forever. Just because you don't see me crying every day doesn't mean I'm over it."
The thought of Amelia crying herself to sleep at night rips a gaping hole in my chest. Maybe because I haven't fallen in love before or had a real girlfriend, the idea of mourning a relationship is foreign to me. Imagining her crying or keeping her feelings locked away because she feels like she'll be seen as weak is a sad realization to hear.
"I'm sorry you and Beckett didn't work out."
"Thanks. It wasn't a perfect relationship. But we put in so much time and effort that I never saw us not working through things."
I hate seeing her upset, and talking about this douchebag, so I change the subject to turn her mood around.
"You love movies. Which one depicted your relationship best?"
Her eyes light up as she places her empty bowl in the sink. "Ohhh, good question."
I'm not about to ruin the moment and tell her to put it in the dishwasher. I'll tell her in fifty minutes.
"We were so different. Opposites attract, I guess? A movie where the guy was cool and she was sweet."
"You're sweet?"
