In my case, though, there’s no relationship crisis because there’s no relationship.
“I’ve been talking to someone else on the fake dating site.” The words taste bitter in my mouth. “He seems nice,” I continue. “And he’ll pay for me to travel to Boston, so there’s that. I could use a vacation.” I chuckle nervously for absolutely no reason at all.
“Why are you going, Mo?” Her tone is thoughtful. “You don’t need to put yourself through this just to one-up Alex.”
I wave off her words. “It’ll be good for my mental health.”
“Well…” She pauses. “That should help with taking your mind off him, right? Besides, what if you really hit it off with this new guy? Maybe he is serious boyfriend material.”
Instant pressure tightens my chest. I don’t want a serious boyfriend, at least not one who’s not Alex. Boy, do I have it bad, or what?
“Anyway, let’s change topics,” Elizabeth suggests. “What are you doing this weekend? Any plans for tonight?”
I let out a soft groan. “I got invited to a friends get together.”
“Oh, how exciting!” I can picture her clapping her hands together, which is something she always does when she excited. “Which friends? I should know them.”
“Uh, not these friends.”
I brace myself for her asking me for details.
“You made new friends?” She now sounds a bit jealous. “You better not ever ditch me for them.”
“Like you ditched me for your man out in Texas?” I deadpan.
“Hey, not fair,” she giggles. “Besides, we were never just friends. But nice try deflecting.”
I decide to play dumb. “What are you talking about?”
“Who are the new friends, Mona?”
I roll my eyes again, wishing she could see me doing it. “They’re not my friends. They’re friends of the person who invited me to this get together.”
“Oh.” She mulls things over for a minute. “So who’s the friend who invited you to hang out with their friends? Someone from work?”
I’ve never been secretive about anything in my life. I have no idea why I am beating around the bush with my best friend of all people.
“It’s Alex. But it doesn’t mean anything,” I rush to say. “He is still blocked on my phone, and we haven’t had any contact at all other than…”
I stop talking when I realize what I am about to say. Unfortunately, Elizabeth catches on way too quickly.
“So you just have sex every time he shows up at your door, but other than that, no contact at all?”
“Pretty much.”
I understand how stupid it all sounds, but it makes sense for us. Besides, not like he would want me for anything else anyway. I expect that at some point, he just won’t show up anymore. And that will be the worst day of my life.
“So you’re going to hang out with him and his friends tonight?”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Okay…” She sounds confused now. “If you have him blocked and there’s no communication other than when he drives to your place, how are you going to tell him if you’re going or not?”
It’s a fair question, one that I don’t have an answer to.
“He said he’d wait for me downstairs. If I show up by a certain time, good. If not, he’ll just go without me.”
Elizabeth sighs wistfully into the phone. “That’s kind of romantic.”
