Normally, she would be happy about that. Very happy. But she had made up her mind now, and she couldn't think like that anymore.
"You finished?"
Lucy's head snapped towards him. "Finished? What do you mean?"
Ryan gave her a lopsided smile. "Finished with your food."
She looked down at her beef with broccoli and noticed she had barely touched it the entire time she was here. "Yeah, I'm done."
She took out the chopsticks and handed over the take-out box, his fingers gently brushing against hers as he grabbed it from her hand with a big smile on his face. He took the fork out of his now-empty fried rice container and started to dig in with glee.
"What did you think I meant?" he asked jokingly.
"What?"
He waved his fork in her general direction. "When I asked if you were finished, did you think I meant something other than your food?"
Yes. Yes, she did.
"Listen, Ryan. Can we talk about something?"
Lucy looked up to see him staring at her, fork in mid-air above her beef and broccoli, an inquisitive look on his face.
"Does it involve what I'm going to do to you in my bedroom?"
"Um—"
"Because if there's something you like—"
"It's not about that."
Her response was a little snappier than she wanted it to be, but it got Ryan's attention. His eyes went a bit wide in shock, taking in her entire body, which was now perched on the edge of the couch. He seemed to finally be able to tell that she was trying to be serious. He gently put his take-out container down on the coffee table in front of them, stabbing his fork upright in the middle of it.
"OK," he said, looking back at her. "What do you want to talk about?"
Lucy folded her hands in her lap, her fingers nervously wrapping around themselves as she fidgeted a bit. She hoped this wouldn't hurt him too much. Hell, she hoped this wouldn't hurt her. But it was for the best.
"I don't think we should see each other anymore."
She could see the muscles in his jaw flex with tension, his hand tighten on his knees as he leaned forward.
"And why is that exactly?"
"It's just that…this weekend reminded me that you're fun and awesome, really, but we just met each other at the wrong time."
"The wrong time?"
She took a deep breath and exhaled. He wasn't going to make this easy for her. "You're a great guy, Ryan, but you're also really young, and I don't know if I want to continue being with someone who isn't ready to be in a real relationship, you know?"
"So you're breaking up with me?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, that would imply that we're a couple, but we aren't really a couple, are we?"
"I think we are."
Now it was Lucy's turn to act surprised. How did some dinners and late-night sex constitute being someone's girlfriend? Because that's not what it implied to her. See? This was for the best. This was probably Ryan's longest relationship with a woman so he just assumed that dinner and sex meant they were a couple.
"We aren't, honey."
