Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Ty
? Ever the Same - Rob Thomas ?
This is the most nervous I’ve been since Eric and I first sat down to do these interviews.
The next subject I want to broach is one I already know will be difficult to discuss, and I can’t decide if I’m ready to get it over with or remove it from the list completely.
The only reason I’m not caving to the latter is because I know there is no way this book can go out without this topic of conversation being included—it's the one detail about his life that people are dying to get the actual story on.
I was hoping that she would have come up while we were staying with his family last week, but there was no mention of her. No photos of the two of them together in any of the albums or boxes of photos we went through. No, “Hey, remember that time that you and Amy…” stories from anyone.
Eric slides into the booth across from me, smiling wide as he looks into my eyes, and my heart falls, knowing I’m likely about to ruin the good mood he’s woken up in.
“Morning, Sunshine,” he says, the nickname he’s given me still making my heart soar, even after months of hearing it every morning. “How’d you sleep?”
Awful without you next to me, I think.
“Decent,” I say. “You?”
“Not as good as when we were at my parents'," he says, stretching his arms out to the sides before flexing them behind his head and yawning. “Coffee?” he asks.
I nod. “Sounds great, thanks.”
He rises from the booth and heads to the Keurig on the kitchen counter. As he always does, he brews mine first, adding a splash of caramel macchiato creamer while his brews. He walks back over to the booth and hands my mug to me before sliding back into his seat across from me.
“Alright, what am I boring you with today?” he asks, taking a sip of his coffee.
“I was hoping we could talk about Amy,” I say. He immediately looks away from me and out the window beside us, his jaw flexing.
“Alright,” he says after a long moment of consideration.
“If you don’t want to right now, it’s alright,” I say. “We can postpone it.”
“No, it’s fine. I knew I’d have to go down this road eventually. Let’s just…get it over with.”
“Great,” I say, my voice small. I can’t tell which of us is more uncomfortable about talking about his ex-fiancé, but I take a deep breath and press record on my app.
“Have you ever been in love?” I ask, as my heart pounds nervously in my chest and my palms turn clammy.
I’ve already discovered that hearing about the women Eric has been with is difficult, and this is going to suck, but the sooner this topic is covered the sooner I can cross it off the list and we can move on.
“Twice,” he says, his eyes move back to focus on me, but they’re distant. It’s not the vibrant, playful, sapphire gaze I saw thirty seconds ago. It’s guarded and pained, and I already hate myself.
“Amy, I assume.” He nods. “And the other?”
He flashes a sad smile before looking down at the hands he has wrapped around his mug. He removes one and rubs at his chest, eyes fixed on the table.
“Someone who didn’t feel the same way.”
I shake my head, unable to imagine anyone not falling in love with the man sitting across from me.
“Where should we start?” I ask.
“From the beginning, I guess.”
TRACK 4
Love Hurts