“Oh.” Heat crept up my face. “Well... Thank you. But I didn’t want to. Break up, I mean. He didn’t leave me much choice.”
“He cheated.”
“Nope. I could have forgiven that.” I was pretty sure.
“So, what was this unforgivable offense?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then why bring it up?”
Because Reeti’s not here. Because you’ve been nice to me. Because I’m lonely. “Because I wanted a man’s perspective. Him contacting me, out of the blue like that. It made me wonder...” I hugged Tim’s square, stiff pillow to my chest.
“Wonder what, exactly?”
“If... You know. Things were different now. If he were different. I mean, people can change, right?”
“Not their basic nature, no,” Tim said coolly.
“But their feelings can change.”
“Feelings are meaningless without action to support them. Did this person say anything to make you believe he had changed?”
“N-no.”
“Or that he wanted to change?”
“No. But he...”
Tim waited.
“Reached out,” I said.
“Called you, emailed, what?”
“He texted.”
Tim didn’t say anything.
Someone knocked on the door. He got up to open it.
“I got your text,” Reeti said as she blew into the apartment. She grinned. “It sounded like a booty call.”
Tim made a noise.
I couldn’t look at him. “I should go.”
“But I just got here.” Reeti flung herself on the couch. “Is that wine?”
“You don’t drink,” Tim said.
“After dinner with my parents I do,” Reeti said.
He went into the kitchen to get another glass.
“How was it?” I asked. “The dinner with your parents.”
Had I gone out to dinner with our mother as a child? I must have. We’d lived in New York.
