Journey does the Journey thing and snorts. Her obvious punctuation highlights my words. "An old friend, right?" Ace says.
"You know our dad died, right?" Journey speaks up.
Ace turns to face Journey. "I do, now, no thanks to Melody informing me.”
"No offense, but I don’t think you were on her list of concerns while planning a funeral," Journey continues.
Mom drops her water glass down abruptly on the table, stands from her chair, and leaves the room to go upstairs.
Ace runs his fingers through his hair. "I don’t want to be without you, Melody."
"I’m sorry.”
"You had years to offer a commitmentto me, but the only thing you made a commitment to over those four years was Sunday football."
"I didn’t know you needed a commitment when we were blissfully living together," he argues.
"Blissfully?" I snap back. "I cooked, cleaned, and stared out the window for hours watching the life I wanted as I watched neighbors stroll by with their expensive baby carriages, or the play-date moms’ group, or the couple who just prefers to hold hands when they walk down the street."
"Yikes," Journey mumbles. "Sounds like suburbia-hell."
"Thank you!" Ace says, waving at Journey.
"Whoa, whoa, watch yourself," Journey says. "Any and every man I have dated has known from the beginning, I do not have plans to get married or have kids. Melody, though, I know for a fact she shared her hopes and dreams with you years ago because I was there when it happened at a friend’s wedding. The conversation went something like, ‘Oh, Ace, I can’t wait until it’s our turn. Then we’ll have babies, and live in a perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, and live happily ever after.’"
Journey’s mocking scene sounds nothing like me, but I appreciate her standing by my side.
"So, because Melody had hearts in her eyes during a wedding, I should have goneout to buy a ring that night and maybe knocked her up a week later?"
"Sure," Journey says. "It would have been better than making her your housewife minus the wife part."
I glare at Ace, seething as he continues to defend himself. "Great, well, let’s do it, Melody. Come on, we’ll go pick out a ring and get you pregnant. Then, voila, your life will be perfect again."
I drop my hands and intertwine my fingers in front of my waist. "You need to get out of my house and go home. This is still over."
"Is this where I’m supposed to keep chasing you until you realize how serious I am?" he asks, chuckling as if he’s trying to be funny.
I turn around and walk down the hallway to the front door, opening it as an invitation. "The door is right here in case you don’t know where to find it," I shout into the kitchen.
"I’m not giving up, Melody."
"Okay, well, can you go ‘not give up’ somewhere else? I just worked half the day, and I’m not in the mood to continue this same old argument with someone I’m no longer in a relationship with."
Ace huffs and grumbles as he storms past me, grabbing his coat from the hook on the way out the door. I feel nothing as he passes by.
"How did he get here?" I call into the kitchen, asking Journey.
"Uber," she responds. "Don’t worry, we have a curb he can sit on until one comes back for him."
I close the front door, wishing it would be so simple to close Ace out of my life as I thought it was.
Journey is placing the water glasses in the sink when I return to the table. "Did you really break up with him at the airport?" she asks.
"Yes, I did," I confirm.
"That’s pretty badass."
I shrug, though her back is toward me. "You kept your calm more than I thought you would. You’re either still numb, or you had a nice morning at the shop, and I don’t think you’re still numb after making your way to the shop this morning."
