“Ouch. Did it work?”
Ben scoffed as he merged onto the empty highway. “No. They’re still together, though. My mom refuses to admit defeat and my dad refuses to quit cheating.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that. It was still before 5 a.m.
“Anyway,” he said. “You can put your seat back and sleep if you want. It says forty minutes.”
“I’ll keep you company,” I said, not wanting to just knock out on him after he revealed that his dad was a serial cheater. A little ping in my gut told me that had something to do with his own promiscuous ways, but it was way too early to be digging into that. “The coffee’s good. Cole never let us have flavored coffee, but I love it.”
I felt foolish for bringing up Cole. Even though Mikey and I were just friends, it felt weird to be talking about my very very recent ex.
Ben shook his head. “Does that guy like anything fun?”
I hoped Ben would laugh at my next Cole fact. “He said flavored coffee is the opiate of the masses.”
Ben snorted. “He’s a card, that one.”
“A card?” I repeated.
“Look, I don’t want to talk too much shit. If you end up getting back together, I don’t want you to hate me for all the mean stuff I said about him.”
“Why do you think I’m getting back together with him?” Hadn’t he seen me after our final fight?
A muscle ticked in Ben’s jaw and his fingers shifted on the steering wheel. “That’s just what I see relationship people do.”
“Relationship people?”
“Yeah. They break up, then realize maybe it wasn’t so bad and that person might be their only chance, and then they get back together and get married and buy a golden retriever and put up the white picket fence and send smarmy Christmas cards of them and their perfect little kids.”
Shew. I was taken aback by all the hostility packed into that one statement. Ben sucked down a sip of his coffee to fill the silence.
“We were never getting married. Cole listens to those men’s podcasts where everything is a conspiracy to take the white man down. He thinks marriage is a social construct designed to trickpeople into government surveillance.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ben was incredulous, bordering on outraged. “That man had no intention of putting a ring on it?”
“Is that a problem?”
“A woman like you deserves to be celebrated, Jessie. He should have been throwing a goddamn parade every day that he had you.” He took a long rip on his coffee, then muttered, “Social construct.”
My stomach fluttered. Did Mikeylikeme?
Oh, this was bad. Really bad. I was trying to leave because this was looking like a messy situation, and that was before this comment. The longer we continued this cohabitation experiment, the sloppier it would get.
And yet, I pressed on. “What do you mean, a woman like me?”
“I mean, you have ambition. You’re driven. You’re talented. You don’t give up because stuff’s hard. You’ve got guts. You don’t deserve to be minimized. You need to hear every fucking day that you’re amazing. And for a man to have the nerve to not meet your needs...” he trailed off.
“Why do you keep going on about the orgasms?” I asked.
“It’s not just the orgasms, Jessie. You need someone who won’t live in an expensive place and charge you rent when you make less money. Instead of supporting you, he just added obstacles. And because he knew you’re tough, he knew you wouldn’t back down.”
I was furious, mostly because he was right. But also, the audacity. “And what, you’re going to give me what I need? You’re back on the sneaky boyfriend train again.”
“No, I’m not. Am I right, though? Did I get it right?”
“Fuck off, Ben!” I snapped.
Ben stared through the windshield like the empty road itself made him mad, while I stared out my side window. He swore under his breath.
