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“All of them?” I asked.
She nodded. “My little steel plate is now bare. Well…” She rolled her eyes. “The one Ophelia got me from London is still there.”
I was silent. I had never added to her magnet board. I never understood the fascination she had with magnets. Her fridge at home was bare, always clean of any papers. It was her living room and her bookshelf that she added to. The novels she read were what put a smile on her face, not a magnet.
“You know what?” She shook her head and put her hand back on the table, looking at me now, locking her eyes to mine. “I never got the magnet thing.”
I laughed. “Jeez, it’s like you just read my mind.”
“Who gets someone a magnet? Who in their right mind travels to a different state and thinks…” She sat up straighter and deepened her voice. I pulled a grin and watched her do her best Kent impersonation, which wasn’t a good impersonation at all. “‘Oh, I’m here in Texas. I need to get my girlfriend something. Ooh, she will like the Texas-shaped magnet.’” She slumped her body again. “I bet he got all of those magnets at the damn airport.”
“Where else do you buy magnets?” I asked sarcastically. “So Kent just assumed you liked magnets and got you one from every state. He thought he was a little quirk of yours.”
“I have no quirks, and I definitely don't have a thing for magnets.”
“I hate to tell you, Maddy, but you have some quirks…” I mumbled under my breath, taking a sip of my water. The massive amount of ice the bartender had filled my cup with had finally melted.
She shook her head. “There really was no romance in our relationship, was there?” She looked back at her empty glass, ignoring my quirk comment completely. “The only thing he was good at was the price on Voco products.”
“And we’re back to dental supplies. There’s something unethical about that.” I took a bigger gulp of my water, suddenly wishing it was something stronger.
“Why did you let me date him? You hated him from the beginning.”
“That’s not true.” I pointed at her. “Do you remember when I first met him? You had me over for dinner. You had been dating him for almost three months, and youhadto have us meet.”
Her eyes rolled so hard they almost fell to the floor. “You bonded over Iron Man.”
“Damn straight we bonded over Iron Man. Nothing is better than Iron Man,” I defended. “I actually liked him for a while after that, and then there was the Fourth of July block party and he came…”
She nodded. “I remember the block party…” She picked up her empty glass of beer, pulling it back, trying to get the last remaining drop that sat on the bottom of the glass.
“He said something that I could tell really offended you. You bit your lip and let go of his hand, taking a single step back. You looked at the ground and wouldn’t make eye contact with him for the longest time, and then you shook your head and put a smile on your face and pretended he didn’t just say whatever it was that he said. When he reached out for your hand again, not even noticing he hurt you, you took it and acted like everything was normal.” I studied her face, watching as the memory of that one ten second moment reappeared in her mind. It was something she most likely blocked out, but I never forgot her motions and how Kent didn't even seem to care.
She looked at me from the corner of her eye, and I spoke again. “That’s the moment I decided he wasn’t worth it, that he wasn’t for you. He hurt you and didn’t even notice.”
Madeline took a deep breath and looked up at me. “Do you remember what he said?”
I nodded. “He basically said that all hygienists are the people who couldn’t make it in dental school, that they were the ones who failed and settled for something less rewarding, less…difficult.”
She locked my gaze, and I could tell just by the gloss in her eyes that the simple memory of that conversation broke her heart even more, and it broke mine to know I was the one to break it. Her bottom lip trembled. I reached out and grasped her hand in mine. She watched as our fingers intertwined, and then she let out a small laugh.
“Jamie today…you know Jamie.” She looked back up at me, a single tear fell on her cheek, but nothing more. She still held onto my hand and shifted her body in the chair.
I nodded. “Yeah, your assistant.”
“And friend,” she added, forcing a small smile. “She said that I shouldn’t be upset over a cheater like Kent dumping me. She said I should celebrate.”
I chuckled and felt the corners of my lips tug, a grin forming. “And you decided to celebrate here? You know what this bar is, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, we first met here. I thought it would be a good memory.” She smiled back at me and cleared her throat. “She also saidweshould date.”
I raised my eyebrows. I knew what I really wanted to say. I wanted to scream yes at the top of my lungs, pull her close to my body, and never let her go. Promise her that I could give her everything she wanted, that my heart always had feelings for her that I buried deep inside and forced myself not to show them. I wanted to whisk her away to her house and do things with her that we would never think of otherwise. I wanted to be hers forever. But I knew…I knew…that she took Jamie’s comment as a joke. That she wasn’t being serious with it.
I forced a laugh. “Us? We tried that.” I coughed, reaching for my glass with my free hand, trying not to squeeze Madeline’s too hard.
“And I told her that.” She broke the contact between our hands, and I instantly felt the warmth pull away. “She didn’t like that too much.”
I shook my head, trying to force all those emotions back into the little box. Madeline was my friend, and only my friend. “We know that won’t work ever,” I tried to emphasize.
