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Olivia reached over to take my hands in hers. Her thumbs rubbed up and down the back of my hand as she looked at me. “Babe, you have effectively blocked out every potential for a relationship in your life. This is the first time you did this on your own. You willingly got into this relationship with Tommy, whether it was fake or not to begin with. I think you need to give him a chance.”
What she said was logical. Tommy deserved to either explain or defend himself. But I wasn’t ready for that conversation. I knew I couldn’t tell Olivia that though, so I nodded my head, pretending to agree with her in the moment.
“Listen, I really need some alone time right now,” I trailed off.
“Of course.” Olivia stood up, but not before wrapping me in a hug. “I’ll check on you tomorrow.”
I walked her to the door, giving her one more wave as she left. As soon as the door closed, I threw myself back down on the couch and flipped the television on. The previous movie I had been watching was paused and I clicked play, transporting myself into someone else’s happily ever after and away from my own disaster.
Maggie
Inever thought my fake relationship with Tommy would get to the part where I was considering leaving my job with the Chicago Cougars, a job I loved, just to get away from him. But the ache in my heart was so deep, I thought I’d surely never be able to look him in the eyes again, much less continue to take his photo. My heart felt like it had been ripped from my chest the moment I saw Sutton James wrapped in Tommy’s arms like a leech.
My computer balanced on my legs as I multitasked between scrolling through jobs halfheartedly and watching The Proposal. Part of me wondered if watching something that was a little too closely related to the situation that was causing me so much pain was actually good for my mental health, but I couldn’t boycott Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock just because of a heartbreak.
As I was shoving my mouth with popcorn and debating if my previous thought about JCPenney hiring me would look like a downgrade on a résumé, my apartment door opened and Olivia barreled inside. She looked around at the sight in front of her. I had spent the night hunkered down and hadn’t bothered to clean up the takeout boxes and dishes I had used last night and today.
“I’m here to check on you. You haven’t responded to any of my texts, Maggie,” Olivia said as she looked around in partial awe at my ability to turn my apartment into something similar to a landfill.
“And your point is?” I asked around my mouthful of popcorn.
Olivia took in what I was watching, the remnants of snacks around me, the empty bottle of wine from the previous night, and the fact that I was still in my pajamas.
“Is this really what you want for yourself?” she asked me.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you really want the only form of happiness you ever feel to be from movies?”
Ouch.
“What I had with Tommy is over, Olivia. There’s no happiness coming from that relationship anymore. Honestly, was it even a relationship to begin with?”
Olivia walked over to my coffee table and swiped the remote to my television. She clicked the off button before tossing the remote on the couch next to me.
“What are you doing?” she asked, waving her hands at my computer.
“Looking at jobs,” I mumbled.
“You’re joking, right?” Olivia looked at me like I had grown three heads. “You’re going to get a different job just because a guy you really like did something you’re not even sure he actually did?”
I shrugged because I knew that if I opened my mouth to defend myself, nothing logical would come out, because there was nothing logical about what I was doing.
“I know my best friend is stronger than that.”
At that moment, I felt anything but strong. The image of Tommy’s arms around his ex-girlfriend had been replaying in my head all night.
“Has he tried to contact you?” Olivia asked as she reached for my phone. When she flipped my screen around, her eyebrows shot up. I knew what she saw. There were about thirty unread text messages from Tommy and a handful of ignored calls.
“Did you not pick up any of these?”
“I don’t want to talk to him.”
“You don’t even know what actually happened, Maggie. You’re assuming!” Olivia threw her hands up in the air, giving me a look like she couldn’t believe what I was doing.
“Our relationship wasn’t even real,” I told her.
Olivia sighed and sat down on the couch next to me. Her hands gripped my shoulders as she turned me to face her.
