The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Forty-Four

"I know how hard it is, I've been there," Oliver says. "Luckily I wasn't in a hole like you, but we were tied up in a company together, and that complicated things."

I recall his brief mention of relationships we've had since each other, I still for whatever reason am having a hard time wrapping my mind around him with someone else in such a serious way, and I find myself very curious about it.

"So you were living with someone, and y'all worked together too? Is that how you met?"

"Yeah," he says. "This was the first company I purchased actually, a collection agency, a small one, that wasn't doing well. She was one of their top collectors, a hard worker who never got recognition for it. I saw it, promoted her, and we started working together. She came up with the amazing idea of working with a debt management company, and we turned it all around."

There's a small smile on the corner of his lips and a slightly faraway look in his eyes. She meant a lot to him, as did his first company, and her being part of it was probably a big deal for them as a couple.

"How long were you together?"

"Almost four years," Oliver confirms.

"What happened?"

"Everything started to take off after the collection agency did so well. I bought the debt management company, and then James came to me about partnering up, and when the iron is hot you have to run with it. Cassie was at that point the VP of the collection agency and debt management company and was as busy as I was."

"I get that," I say slowly. "Julian was gone so much, at least you two saw each other at work though. Did that help at all?"

"No, it actually made us think we were okay when weren't."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We were so wrapped up in the company that started to become what our relationship was about instead of it being about us. Every night that's what we talked about, work. Even when we tried to do something else, we'd talk shop. I recall a camping trip when we were playing cards and talking ideas of clients to approach."

"Yikes," I say.

"We were both such workaholics that we didn't see that this was bad, right away" he lets out a breath. "Then one night we're celebrating her thirtieth birthday, and she starts crying, just breaks down. She said, she suddenly remembered that she always thought she'd be married by thirty, and we were nowhere near that."

He pauses for a moment as a sad look crosses his eyes. "We stopped looking at our future as a couple and, we both married our work. It was a painful but mutual decision to end things."

"I'm sorry," I say leaning over and squeezing his hand. "That must have been so hard with working together after that?"

It's a strange feeling knowing he moved on with life and had a serious live-in relationship, it's not jealousy so much, but curiosity, this side of Oliver I don't know, never knew. Who he was as a man and as a boyfriend to someone other than me? 

"That was where things started to grow complicated. The breakup may have been mutual, but we were both left with hurt feelings, and then... Well, the fallout wasn't very pretty, I'll just say that much."

I tilt my head, giving him a curious look.

"Not a story for tonight," he says, shifting uncomfortably.

I can't help it though, I want the rest of the story. I have to shake my focus back to why we're here, and I sit up a bit.

"You're right, so let's get to the story of the other time you decided to start over again," I say.