I knew it was an excuse.I knew he didn’t want to see me, that I’d have to apologize again.But I figured if I saw him one more time, saw that he was okay, I’d be able to move on.
I knocked on the door, trying to think of what to say, and, almost immediately, someone opened it.
It wasn’t him.Or Trish.It was some lanky guy in a U of T sweatshirt.
“Yeah?”he said.
“Is Trish around?”
“Who?”
“Trish Brockherst.She lives here.”
“No, man.I moved in yesterday.There’s mail for her, though.”He ducked back inside and came out with a long, white envelope addressed to Trish.“If you know where she moved to, you can give it to her.”
“Sure.Um...is Eddie here?”I felt a horrible, tightness in my chest at the thought that this might be Eddie’s new boyfriend.
But the guy just squinted.“Who?”
“Never mind.Was there any mail for him?”
“Nope.”
“Okay.Thanks.”
The guy shut the door in my face.I looked at the envelopes in my hand.I had a plan.
I searched for her online.I wasn’t being creepy.I was trying to find her to let her know I had her mail and to ask her where I could forward it.And how Eddie was doing.
Except, the only social media she was on was LinkedIn, and it listed her as still working at the lab.I messaged her but didn’t get a reply.
So I looked for him.I wasn’t planning to contact him if I found him.I just needed to know he was okay.But all I knew was his first name and that he’d acted in some indie movies I didn’t know the names of, because he hadn’t told me and I hadn’t asked, and there were tons of Eddies on IMDb with no photos on their profiles, and any one of them could have been him.
I started to feel like a creep.I barely knew him.What right did I have to go searching for his personal information?
Feeling guilty, I gave up looking.
I tried to ride it out.But I was so messed up that one night, when Bexley and I were sitting in the van after rehearsal waiting for Ben to join us, he said, “What’s going on, Craig?”
I hated lying to Bex, but what could I tell him?That I’d met this guy, known him for three days, hadn’t seen him for almost two months, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him?
So I said, “Trish left the lab.”
“You still hung up on her?She’s still with her boyfriend?”
“I don’t know.”
“Time to move on,” said Bex.
He was right.And I did try to move on.But I couldn’t.
And then one day, I didn’t have to.
Because I found him again.
