Chapter 5 #2
‘Yeah… well…’ Noah seemed to falter at this question and for a moment, she was worried he was going to round on her for caring more about money than about doing good.
Instead, he paused, took something of a breath and began with, ‘Well, I am taking a pay cut to work there. Like a twenty per cent pay cut.’
‘Oooft…’ she sympathised.
‘But the society isn’t based in New York. So, they have cheaper offices, cheaper staff, a lot of land and they can put so much more money towards their work.’
‘Oh, so where are they based?’ Lauren’s knowledge of upstate New York was sketchy. She knew it existed but she hadn’t spent any time exploring it.
‘Well…’ There was another pause and suddenly she wasn’t so sure if she was going to like what he was about to say.
‘It’s in Cleveland… in Ohio.’
‘Cleveland!’ She had to struggle for a moment with her gasp reflex as there was a danger that she might either choke on this chunk of pizza or let it drop out of her mouth in surprise. ‘But that’s—’
‘A long way away,’ he agreed.
Lauren could not have been more surprised.
No, upgrade that to shocked. Noah had invited her here to tell her he was moving to Cleveland.
Nothing about this was good. She felt completely jolted.
She was beginning to think she might throw up.
She liked him so, so much. And clearly, she meant nothing to him, despite the hello kiss and the handholding.
‘Have you – have you been to Cleveland?’ she managed to ask, sounding weak and confused.
‘No, in fact, I haven’t, at all. We’ve done two rounds of interviews online. They’ve offered me the job, which is amazing. And they are paying for me to go out and meet them all next week.’
‘Right…’ What did this mean? He was moving to Cleveland? Was he going to come and visit her? Did he want her to go and visit him?
‘Cleveland is a long way away. I mean, you’re going to move there, right?’ she asked. ‘You’re not going to commute to the office a few times a month… or work remotely?’ This was her last shred of hope.
Noah shook his head and looked at her with something that at least approximated sadness.
‘This is such an amazing opportunity for me. I can’t wait to start with them. It’s going to be life-changing for me and for the animals. They’re breeding extremely rare rhinos!’
‘Noah… it’s going to be a bit life-changing for me too,’ she said. ‘I thought you were my boyfriend, I thought we were a couple and now you’re moving to Cleveland and you’ve not mentioned one word about it.’
He shrugged and mumbled something about ‘all really fast’ and knowing this was what he had to do and a purpose-filled life etc., etc.
But really she wasn’t listening, she was mainly concentrating on not bursting into tears. Because he was so happy about the thing that was going to take him away from her and seemed completely clueless about the fact it would impact her, impact them.
‘So, what about us?’ She decided to just come out and ask as he clearly wasn’t going to make it simple for her to understand. ‘Are we going to try and see each other… do long-distance?’
Noah had the decency to look down at his plate and then she just knew.
‘No… it looks like we’re not,’ she said.
‘I don’t think it would be fair to you.’ Noah glanced up at her now and for a moment, she lost herself in those warm brown eyes again.
He would still come back and forth to New York, wouldn’t he…
? She could go and visit him in Cleveland…
did it have to mean the end of everything between them?
As if he was reading her thoughts, he slipped his hand over hers.
‘It’s not like I’m never going to be back in town,’ he said, ‘and it would be so nice to stay over…’ This came with a little arch of his eyebrow.
But that, that just killed it for her. Was he hoping she was going to be some sort of ‘friend with benefits’ here? Maybe she was already just a friend with benefits. In fact, was she even a friend if he’d done all this planning and plotting about his new job without even mentioning it to her?
‘No, I don’t think so, Noah,’ she said managing to summon up some last shreds of dignity.
‘Friends tell each other about stuff. They share their thoughts, their hopes and dreams. They don’t go, “hey, meet me for pizza, by the way, I’m changing jobs, cities and dumping you” – completely out of the blue, without any thought as to how the other person might feel. ’
Maybe if he’d picked this moment to say something, anything really, that showed he was sorry, or he cared, or he was in some way upset for her, it could have ended on a better note. But instead, he just repeated his line about needing to follow his path.
‘Yeah… well… if it’s OK, I’m going to follow my path too. And it leads to my home. Goodnight,’ she said, fumbling for her purse in her handbag. ‘Goodbye and have a very lovely life.’
She knew she had some actual cash in her purse, because a girl with a thrift store habit always gets a better deal with cash, so best to be prepared. So, she dumped $30 on the table, which more than covered her pizza and water.
‘No, don’t pay,’ Noah protested. ‘I’m sorry it’s ended like this. I’m sorry you feel like this.’
‘Yes, I’m paying,’ she said firmly. ‘You can always donate it to the bloody rhinos.’
And with that, she picked up her jacket and somehow, despite the rage and the tears building and threatening to spill, she managed to walk out of the restaurant, head held high.