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I turn to her with a dish in each hand. She looks miserable, with a crease on her brow that definitely wasn’t present a minute ago. I set one bowl before her, then take a seat at her side with my own. “Hey, if it sucks to talk about it, don’t. I shouldn’t have asked.” I reach for the chopsticks I laid out earlier, and hand her a pair.
“I don’t know why it makes me feel like this—to talk about it, I mean.”
“Sad?”
She bites her lip and that crease digs deeper. “I guess, sad. Yeah. It’s weird, though. I shouldn’t feel sad. Every relationship goes through ups and downs, especially before the actual wedding, you know?”
“Nope. Enlighten me.”
‘“I mean, it’s perfectly normal for two people to date, and then maybe take a break and spend some time apart, and then, when the timing makes logical, practical sense, get back together to walk down the aisle. There are certain, you know, life mile-markers that most people—” She flicks her eyes my way, “Okay, maybe notyou, butmost people—want to hit in a certain order. Mortimer wants to focus on his career, and I one-hundred percent accept that. Then, one day, we’ll get married and start a family when the time is actually right.”
Luckily, I’m fluent in Gemma-speak. I manage to sort through the optimistic projections into the future and find the nugget of truth hidden in her statements. “Okay, so you’re saying you guys are taking a break? You separated?”
“Yeah. He needed some space. To write a book, probably. His books are brilliant.”
A little whisper is stirring in my heart.She’s single.
“Has it been a while? Since you broke up?” I lift a forkful of broccoli and red pepper.Please don't say this happened last week.
If Gemma’s on a rebound from a recent breakup, I have to restrain myself.
If she and this Mortimer guy have been apart for at least a few months… it’s game on.
She pokes her fork into her bowl. “He actually broke it off eight months ago.”
“We can round eight months to a year. You said so yourself, right?”
She lifts the corner of her mouth in a half-smile. “Yeah, I guess I did say that.” The smile fades and she bites her lip. Her brows pinch together again. “Wow, that’s actually a long time. I haven’t talked about this that much. Saying it out loud is sort of strange. Basically, I’ve been on my own for a year…”
“You had Queenie up in that cupboard, though.”
“Yeah…”
“Hey, don’t worry. You’re still doing great.”
“It’s just—I kept thinking it was just going to be a temporary thing, but the months kept passing… Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Okay, so… He travels a lot, and after we broke up I barely saw him around Cambridge or Boston. But one day I was in this shopping square and I was passing a coffee shop and…” A frown flickers across her lips. Then she bites her bottom lip and studies the food left in her bowl.
“And, you saw him?”
“Yeah, and he was with a woman. He had his arm around her for a few seconds when they were in line. He gave her, like, this quick squeeze. Then they sat down across from each other at a table, but they had their heads sort of bowed together so their faces were close. Maybe they were both looking at a sheet of paper or something… Maybe it was a work thing.”
“What’s your gut say?”
She heaves a heavy sigh. “It says I shouldn’t try to interpret something I know nothing about, really. I don’t have all the facts, and—”
I wave my chopsticks at her to stop her from lying to herself any more. “Gem, you don’t need all the facts. You don’t need to use logic, or reasoning, or your brain at all. You don’t need to write a term paper on this, just feel it. What do you feel?”
She places both chopsticks over her bowl and then uses her napkin to pat her lips. “I think I’m done eating. That was delicious. Thanks.”
“You done talking, too, I take it?”
She nods. Worry clouds her pretty face and she pulls her laptop toward her. “Done talking about my relationship with Mortimer, at least. And if you could keep it to yourself that we’re currently taking a break, that’d be great. I haven’t exactly gone public about it. I’m supposed to be a relationship expert…. It’s embarrassing that me and Mortimer are on the rocks.”
“Relax. I won’t tell a soul.” Now that I know, that’s all that matters.
