Never Let You Go

Submitted by James:

It was small talk with Christina at Starbucks until she told me that she still wasn't over her last boyfriend.

I told her, "That's fine.  We can still be friends."

She told me, "He really hurt me a lot."

I told her, "It's okay.  Take your time to get over it."

"I mean, I didn't notice until too late that it was all give, give, give on my part and nothing, nothing, nothing on his."

She went on for a good half-hour or so and didn't let up, even after we had left Starbucks to take a walk.  I'm all for getting things off of your chest, but that's not what I signed up for.  I thought this was going to be a date.

"I mean, he said he liked it when I grew my hair out, then complained that it was too long..."

It was okay.  As long as I was there, I suppose it was up to me to make her feel a little bit better, a little bit more secure.

"I'd offer to give him a massage, and he'd look at me like I was crazy.  I was just trying to be nice..."

We walked through a park at the end of town.  I let her keep talking and get everything that she wanted to off of her chest.

"He forgot my birthday, but I planned a really nice surprise party for his..."

Finally, I told her, "He sounds like a real asshole.  You deserve better."

She told me, "I know that he can be better.  This is probably just a phase.  I'm sure that he and I will get back together."

"Oh.  Even though everything he did made you feel bad?"

She snapped, "How would you know?  You weren't there!  I'm going to call him right now, actually.  I've been holding off, but you know what... I just... I can't..."

She pulled out her phone and dialed him up.  It must've gone to voicemail, because she just stood there talking.  "Hey Ben, it's Christina.  I really, really, really want to talk to you.  I know that we said we wouldn't call each other, but I just feel so bad and I want to fix things.  I know that we can.  We've been through so much and I don't want to throw it all away..."

She kept going.  I told her, "Uh... I'm just going to head off, then."

She nodded and waved, but kept on with her one-sided conversation.  Sad.