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“Well…” He shrugged lamely. “I’m okay talking.”
“Good.” She dimpled a smile, and instead of taking the Interviewer Seat behind her desk, came around and settled into the chair next to him. “That’s the way I like getting to know our clients, too.”
“Do I tell you my life story?”
“I’ve got some of it here.” She opened his folder; he could see part of the form he’d completed online with basic information—name, address, marital status, brief romantic history.
“You’re straight, college educated, nonsmoker, never married but coming off a relationship in California. Would you mind talking about it with me?”
Oof. He hadn’t planned on this. “No, not at all.”
“How serious was it?”
“More for me than for her.” He couldn’t help the bitterness seeping into his voice. “When a job came open in Milwaukee I knew it was time to cut ties and go.”
“You’re a writer…”
“I was a journalism major, did technical writing and some reporting on the side in California. Now I’m writing a non-fiction book with a friend and hoping to get back into the print-media business as well.”
“Interesting career.” She made a note. Rating him on the Great Catch vs. Loser scale? “How long have you been single, Justin? ”
“Oh…” He rubbed his hands together, not having to fake the nerves and reluctance any more. Single? Calculations were 50
hard, since as a couple he and Angie had been on-and-off and off-and-on for the better part of a year since he’d met her at a friend’s beach party. Finally last fall he’d left her apartment swearing it was over for good that time, and though he got suckered into one more night with her—saying no to sex with Angie was a skill he took a while to master—he’d never felt the same way about her again. You could only kick a dog so many times. “About five months.”
“Five months.” Marie was watching him carefully, probably taking in more signals than he knew he was sending. He unclenched his hands, which he hadn’t noticed were fisted until Marie glanced at them. Bizarre interview, both of them talking on one level while searching for a deeper, possibly contradictory story lurking underneath. “And you feel ready to move on?”
“I
am ready to move on.” That much he could state firmly and with absolute honesty.
“Good to hear.” Another note in his folder. “Are you comfortable talking about why the relationship didn’t work out?”
“You don’t pull punches.”
“No, I don’t.” She leaned toward him, eyes earnest. “This is what sets Milwaukeedates.com apart from other sites. I want my clients to find partners who can give them what they need. If you don’t understand what you need, or keep reliving destructive patterns by choosing and discarding the same type of person, you’re going to have trouble finding happy-ever-after. The best way to ensure future romantic success is to dig into the whys and whats of past relationships and sort those out before you meet someone new. This is why I always ask this question, even though it can be difficult and emotional to answer. That said, if you’re not comfortable with it, that’s entirely fine.”
Justin nodded as if he were considering her words, keeping his face blank while internal chemistry urged him to run far and fast. He’d thought he’d be able to walk into Marie’s office, answer a few superficial questions, gather some evidence as to whether she threw Candy at every first-timer, then get out.
He wasn’t expecting to have to eviscerate himself and lay his entrails out for her inspection.
“The relationship didn’t work because…” He couldn’t say she was a man-eater and I was dinner, because it was more complicated than that. Angie had been a beautiful, sexual, vulnerable mess. She was a cheater and I was a sap didn’t work either. He needed a more balanced and less angry sound bite. “I was willing to commit to an exclusive dating arrangement and she wasn’t.”
“She was seeing other men.”
“Compulsively.” Justin resettled in the chair, beginning to perspire. He’d thought he’d be doing the investigating here.
