Moe Rivas has spent her whole life waiting for the perfect storybook romance, but as she approaches her senior year of college -- single, and incredibly disappointed with the male species -- she decides she's sick of daydreaming. Turning her back on...
"I was minding my own business. You chose to be seduced when you started fondling me."
His lips parted in mock outrage. "Yeah right! That bikini was basically masking tape and floss! You knew what you were doing to me, you temptress."
I hid my guilty smile behind the rim of my coffee cup.
Theo didn't seem to pick up on my apprehension, which meant he'd either forgotten what he said, or he assumed I didn't remember. Either way, it offered me a blank slate—and the perfect chance to start anew.
But deep down, I knew even a time machine wouldn't erase Carl's memory, and he'd never let me forget my first love confession.
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I drove for the first three hours, then handed the keys to Theo and took a shot at sleeping my hangover away. Surprisingly, the long drive offered a couple stints of deep sleep and several hangxiety-ridden dreams, but I was otherwise restive and horribly nauseous. After a while, I simply closed my eyes and listened to the gentle vibration of Jay's voice.
"...It stung, watching her leave," he said. "Definitely thought we'd grow old together."
"Fuck," Theo whispered from the driver's seat. "I'm sorry she did that to you, Jay."
"Tt. I don't even blame her at this point. Putting up with this shit every day isn't easy."
It was quiet for a moment, and then Theo asked, "Do you regret it? Marrying her?"
I opened my eyes to a wall of upholstery leather, shocked by his nerve. Jay and I had covered a lot of ground together, but there were some things he refused to exhume in my presence. When it came to my Aunt Maya, Jay always shot the conversation dead.
I'd learned to tread carefully since the divorce.
"Regret?" Jay thought it over for a second, then heaved a sigh. "No. I don't think most people regret the love they experienced, even when it goes south. They might regret staying as long as they did, or maybe how things ended. But the death of a relationship doesn't erase all the good that came out of it. All the things we learned about ourselves. All the growth. Which is probably why we keep searching for it, even after we've been burned." He chuckled quietly. "Burn victims, all of us."
"Did you try dating again after she cheated?"
"Nah. I wasn't interested in romance after that. And I didn't need that kind of love in my life, not when I had Mona looking after me." I heard the grin on his lips. "I might be dying, but that kid has saved my life time and time again. Part of me wishes I could stick around just for her. She makes life less shitty, even when it's miserable."
His words wrung my heart out, and I tilted my forehead into the seat, blinking away tears.
"I can see that," Theo acknowledged. "She makes every situation better. Even when she's roasting you."
