AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I used to do these kinds of gigs all the time, but I pulled back after a knee injury and had never gone back to doing it as regularly as I once did. Atlanta was a hotbed for music, and I had been in dozens of music videos.
I got off of the phone with Danny, and immediately my mind went to Isaac. I wondered what he would think about it. I wanted to tell him.
I had to break up with Eddie.
Even if things were ultimately not meant to work out between Isaac and me, I still had to break it off with Eddie.
I called him on my lunch break, and because it was the first and only thing on my mind I said, "Eddie, we have to break up."
"What? Why? Why are you saying that?"
"Because. I mean, we're not even really official yet, and I just think we should… before we go telling your mom, and everything… I just think… I need to… I love your mom and this job, and I don't want to complicate things by us trying to have a relationship. I think we should be friends."
"We already had this conversation," Eddie said. "My mom knows something's going on. She asked me about it yesterday, and she wasn't upset at all. She loves you."
"Eddie, I love her, too. That's what I'm saying. I think we rushed into this."
"I've been trying to hit you up for like three years, Ari. And why are you calling me to say this? Just come over and we'll talk about this in person."
"I'm working today."
"Then I'll go there. Don't do this on the phone."
"No. I just need you to… I just need to be your friend. I don't need to talk about it."
Silence.
"Wow," he said. "I have no idea what I did."
"Nothing. That's the thing. You did nothing. This is one of those times whereit's not you, it's meis the actual truth."
"That's what people say when they're cheating."
His words felt like a stab to the chest.Was one phone call cheating?The extreme butterflies in my stomach were definitely cheating. But that was why I was breaking it off.
"I’m not cheating," I said. "Because we're not committed."
"Are you seeing someone else?"
"No."
"Then there's no reason we shouldn't still give this a try. Like you said, we've been moving slow already."
I breathed a sigh. "I’m confused right now, Eddie, and I don't want to be tied to any relationship. I have Thanksgiving and then a video coming up, and then we're crazy with planning and recitals. It's too much. We have to be done. I'm sorry."
He hung up on me.
I couldn't believe it. I was waiting for him to respond, and all I heard was a click. I sat in my car, staring straight out of my windshield with my phone still to my ear.
My momentary dread was replaced with relief and happiness.
Isaac. My mind went right to Isaac in Seattle, and I was happy. And then I worried that it was wrong of me to break up with one guy and move right on to thinking about the next.
But I couldn’t help it. My mind was already on Isaac. I thought of everything, from both of our meetings in Seattle, to the book, to the long conversation we shared last night.
It was the right thing to do to break up with Eddie. The question was… how long was I supposed to wait before I contacted Isaac? It wasn't that I thought there was some sort of waiting period—I knew I had fulfilled my moral obligation when I broke up with Eddie. But wasn't there some sort of unspoken rule about how long I should wait when calling Isaac back? I didn't want to seem too desperate. It would probably be a lot for him if I broke up with Eddie and called him back all in one day. I figured I should probably wait a day or two.
I went through the afternoon in a hazy mood where I was a slightly preoccupied version of myself. It was Friday, and Kathy wasn't at the studio at all. Neither she nor Eddie called or texted me about personal matters, so I made my day as normal as I could. I was emotional, though. I was the one breaking up with Eddie, and it was still difficult.
