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“Well, my parents were. They were destined to be together, and it crushed my mom when he passed away. It crushed me.”
“I’m sorry. Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“Car accident. It was a winter night, and he hit a patch of black ice. I can still remember the phone call my mom got and the way her mouth hung open in a silent cry before the wailing started. It was a dark year after that; she sank into a depression. She’s doing better now, and I hate being away from her, but she ran me out of town.” I laugh to try and lighten the mood after the sadness washed over me.
“How so?” Simon asks.
I wrap the loose thread from my cardigan around my finger again. “I had a boyfriend, but he was a scumbag, and my mom didn’t like him. I should have listened to her. Parents are wise in that type of stuff, you know?”
“I agree,” he says, and I file that little tidbit of information away for later.
“He cheated on me—I know, super cliché. But I caught him, so there was no weaseling his way out of it. And after moping around for a month, my mom called my cousin, Desi, and asked if I could come stay with her a while. Desi was ecstatic about it, we’ve always been close. Eventually, I moved to Sunnyville and secured the assistant teacher position last year. The rest is history.”
“Sounds like a whirlwind.”
“It was but definitely something that needed to happen so that I didn’t stay stuck in the same rut I’d always been in. I was in love with love and not with Greg.”
“The scumbag?”
“The scummiest.”
“Is that what made you do the show?”
“What?”
“Your love of love?”
“Well, not exactly. My cousin actually signed me up. I didn’t ever expect to get picked. I was apprehensive about doing it, but she convinced me. So, here we are.” I shrug a little and clear my throat.
“Here we are,” he agrees.
“What about you?”
“Me?” Something tells me he is playing dumb and knows exactly what I’m asking him.
“Yeah, why did you do the show? It seems like it wasn’t your choice.”
“If I’m being completely honest, it wasn’t.”
The revelation isn’t shocking since I was expecting it, but something weirdly akin to sadness slices through me all the same. I wanted to hear that he did want to find love and would try at this whole thing.
But he continues, “I’ve told you about my charity, Heartful, and I guess you could say that it’s what got me on the show.”
“How did a charity rope you into a dating show?”
“My superior at the hospital, his son is the director.”
“Boris?”
“One and the same.”
“He gives me the creeps,” I say.
Simon glances over at me, frowning. “Why? Did he do something to you?” His eyes quickly scan my body, as if he could immediately pick up on what grave injury Boris might have performed against me.
“No, just a feeling I get around him.”
Simon just nods and drums the steering wheel again.
“I was asked by my superior, Dr. Greene, if I would participate in his son’s show in return for a sizable donation to my charity. I couldn’t pass it up. Money like that could do a lot for my patients and their families.”
“What is the point though?” I ask, truly confused on the motive behind it.
“What do you mean?” He slows the car down and flips a blinker on. We turn from the main highway onto a side street, the area around us looking more suburban as we drive.
“I mean, why would they put you on the show, knowing you are just doing it for the donation and not for actually finding love?”
“That I haven’t figured out,” Simon says and then stretches his neck side to side, working the kinks out. “I knew Boris in high school. And he never liked me. I think it might be a way to torture me.”
He makes one more turn, and before I can respond, he pulls into the driveway of an adorable two-story brick home, effectively ending our conversation right when I felt like it was getting started.
