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I groaned. “Dr. Brenner could take one more day, and I would be fine.”
Jamie laughed and handed me my large paper cup of coffee. “Kent’s home, right? Did you guys do anything fun?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Nope. Nothing fun.”
“How was his trip? Did he bring you anything from Utah? Another magnet?” She motioned to the small silver plate (one of those rustic barn-style ones you could pick up at Michaels) I had hanging up above my desk. It was covered in all kinds of random magnets from all over the country. Kent had started bringing them to me after we had met and just looking at them made me smile—usually. Today, I was reminded of how the gift of magnet-giving had slowly faded away over the past few months, something I didn’t even think about until now.
I reached forward and began to take the magnets down one by one, tossing them into a trash can under my desk. Each one hit with force, the long bang helping me feel a tinge better. These magnets no longer reminded me I was loved, no longer had a promise of a future. Instead, they were full of hatred and lies. Instead of being a cute gesture and souvenir, they were a forgotten gift that he had to pick up, to make methinkhe was thinking of me. They were worthless.
“Uh-oh…” Jamie said softly, falling into the chair on the other side of my desk. “What happened?”
“Oh, you know. Apparently, the past year of my life has been a total lie.” I tossed another magnet in the basket. “He’s been cheating on me.” I look up at her through my eyebrows. “For an entire year.”
Clang,another magnet hit the metal.
“What? That asshole. You know”—she slouched in her chair, taking a drink of her coffee—“I never liked him anyway.”
I tilted my head and looked at her with narrow eyes. “Yes; you did. You would always tell me how lucky I was.”
Jamie was silent. She pursed her lips and raised her cup to her lips. After taking a sip and searching my face for my emotions, she finally said, “Okay, well. I will admit heseemedlike a good guy.”
“And he was,” I defended, not only myself but Kent as well. For the first year and a half of our relationship, things were great. He would text me daily, a nightly call before bed. Dates were a regular occurrence, and then he began sleeping over. The sex was good—not great by any means—but good, and Niko tolerated him. I truly thought we were doing well. I thought the relationship was stable, and that marriage was right around the corner.
The more I thought about our two years together, the more Kent’s actions became clear. Maybe six or seven months ago, he started taking more trips and staying over less. The sweet texts and phone calls had stopped and so had the magnet gifts.
“I should have seen the signs, you know.” I looked up at Jamie. Her eyes were on mine, and her expression full of sorrow. Jamie wasn’t one to cry, but if I didn’t know her any better, I would guess there were tears forming. “He stopped calling, stopped coming over…the magnets…” I looked over at the silver plate. “If you think about it…it was a long time coming.”
Jamie tilted her head off to the side, keeping her lips together tight, no doubt clenching her teeth to keep from talking. I met her eyes and gave her a stare. She was never one to hold back.
“Say it,” I ordered.
Jamie let out a long breath, set her coffee on my desk, and straightened herself up in the chair. “He was cheating on you, right? For a year? He's the asshole, and you shouldn’t be sad and upset over anything. You should be celebrating.”
“Celebrating?” I repeated, my tone completely void of any emotion.
“Yes!” She hit the desk. “Celebrating. You are no longer tied to him. You are single. You arehot.”
“Jamie…”
“What about Milo?”
I narrowed my eyes to her question. WhataboutMilo? “What?”
She slumped her back. “Milo. You know, Milo Harris, your best friend who is completely in love with you. What about Milo?”
My brain shook, and my heart fell to my stomach. Confusion swept over me. Why would she suggest that Milo was in love with me? Milo was…Milo. There wasn’t anything special about him—and sure, he was my best friend—but he did things all best friends would do for each other, nothing over the top to insinuate he wasin lovewith me. And yet there were times when I would simply think about a memory with him in it and feel little butterflies in my stomach, ones that I would hide and force away. Those weren't real butterflies, just a wish for the feeling of being loved. Milo loved me in a different way—not the way Jamie was suggesting.
I scoffed and shook my head at her comment. “Milo is not in love with me. We tried that a long time ago.”
“You dated Milo?”
“Well…one date. Ophelia set me up with him.” I grabbed a stack of papers and glanced at the schedule. The small yellow dot next to my first patient told me she was here. I didn't even hear the bell with all the magnets hitting the metal trash can. I stood, tucking my papers next to my body and grabbing my cup. Jamie mimicked my actions. “That's how we met, and we became friends a few weeks later.”
“One date? You went on one date with Milo? How come I didn’t know about this?” she asked, following me closely.
“Because it was no big deal. Nothing happened, and that's that.” I turned to look at her following close behind me.
“If he’s been in your life for this long, it obviously was a big deal.” Jamie's voice lowered to a whisper as we passed the other operatories.
