Loving a Man Who Forgot Me Novel Chapter 25
“Not a total dork, just a little one,” I assured him. “At least you didn’t go gaga when you met his sister.”
I was a pretty self-confident person, but Addelynn McCabe could make any girl feel unremarkable.
It was hard having that girl for a best friend. “I’m not a total dummy. I knew better than that,” he smirked.
“But if I had, would you have been jealous? Because that might make me feel a little better.”
I gave him a shove as we came to a stop in front of our cars. “Ride with me?” he asked. “I’ll bring you back to your car later.”
I acquiesced and let him open the door for me. It was a short ride to one of my favorite little restaurants in Roxbury.
We discussed the game and some of the upcoming teams the Panthers would face. Jason was excited and optimistic about their chances of going to the playoffs. I thought that meant we were done talking about my history with Abel.
Silly me. The waitress seated us and handed over menus. She left, and I didn’t get two seconds to scan mine not that I really needed to since I always ordered the same pasta dish—before Jason not so casually brought it up again.
“So, how long did the two of you date for?” I looked at him over the top of my menu. “Are you sure you want to spend tonight talking about my ex-boyfriend?”
He shrugged. “I’m just curious. He didn’t seem overly fond of the idea of me with you.”
I set my menu down carefully. “It’s hard to say how long we were together. We were friends from birth, and at some point it just became more.
I guess you could say we started dating when we were fourteen, at least that was the first time he kissed me and called me his girlfriend, but we were just kids.” “Was he the one you were getting over when we met?”
This is what I’d been avoiding. Jason and I hadn’t talked much about my relationship history, or why I’d turned him down the first half-dozen times he asked me out. It was on the tip of my tongue, the whole sordid truth, but at the last second, I chickened out.
“We broke up toward the end of our senior year. He was going to New York for his music and I was staying here for college. We’ve just been friends since.” That was the truth as I wished it was. Meaning, it was a big fat lie.
It could have remained a sweet memory, something pure and innocent. Young love. High school sweethearts.
Something to be looked back on with fondness. Instead, we’d tainted it with everything that happened after, and now there was no part of it that didn’t make me want to cry over what we let ourselves become.
If Jason noticed that I hadn’t exactly answered his question he didn’t say anything, and I was relieved when he didn’t bring Abel up again.