She walked toward the door. “I have to go.”
“Teddy . . . ,” he said as she opened the door.
“Good luck at your meeting. I know they’ll love you. Everyone does.” She smiled and quietly shut the door behind her.
Everett stared at the door until he realized she wasn’t coming back. “Everyone except you,” he said to the empty room.
56
Teddy drove until tears blurred her vision so much that she didn’t feel safe, so she pulled into a parking lot to get herself together. But then she didn’t feel like getting herself together, so she screamed, closing her eyes and stretching her mouth open as far as it could go.
All she wanted to do was go back to Everett’s apartment and kiss him and forget all about this. She didn’t want to think about the fact that he was leaving. She wanted to live in a beautiful fantasyland where Everett’s job still existed, but as an abstraction that didn’t affect her happiness in any way.
But that wasn’t real life, unfortunately. She hit the steering wheel, hard. “Ouch,” she muttered. This was why she didn’t dramatically hit things: because it hurt, and also no one was around to see it. She stared out at the parking lot. The potholes full of rainwater and dead leaves weren’t exactly an inspiring sight.
Her phone rang, and her stomach felt like a roller coaster at the top of a big hill, floating and waiting to drop. She checked the screen. Richard.
“Oh,” she said, both relieved and disappointed that it wasn’t Everett.
She blew her nose, then answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, babe,” Richard said, “how’s it going?”
“Um.” Teddy considered telling Richard the truth for a moment, then quickly decided against it. “Fine. Things are fine.”
After Richard didn’t say anything, she asked, “And how are you?”
“Well.” Richard exhaled into the phone. “I miss you. The town house isn’t the same without you.”
Teddy pulled the phone away from her ear, stared at it for a moment, then brought it back to her ear. “Excuse me?”
Richard laughed, which made her feel prickly and irritated for reasons she couldn’t fully articulate. “Are you surprised? I miss you!”
“But don’t you have a girlfriend?” she asked sharply.
“I . . . What? How do you know that?”
Teddy sighed. At another time, she would’ve been mortified that she had spied on Richard. But right now she felt so low that it didn’t matter.
“I hid behind a garbage can and saw you at HighBall. Whatever,” she said. “Who cares how I know? I don’t think she’d be happy that you’re calling me.”
“We’re not together anymore,” Richard said as if this made it all better.
“Oh, so you’re calling me because you’re single now, and you need someone to make your dinner?” Teddy asked loudly.
“No, I—”
“I’m not in the mood for explanations right now, Richard. I mean it. I don’t give a shit why you think you miss me. I want you to stop calling me, and go—I don’t know—go fuck yourself! Oh, and stop calling me babe. Sometimes I think you don’t even know my real name.”
She pressed the END CALL button and barked out a loud laugh to herself. Never in her life had she said anything like that to another person, but she supposed there was a first time for everything.
The smile on her face faded as she remembered Everett. But then, as she looked around, she realized that the parking lot she was in belonged to a Taco Bell.
“Oh, hell yes,” she whispered as she started the car and pulled into the drive-thru. She might have been feeling the lowest she’d ever felt, but at least the universe was providing for her when it came to Crunchwrap Supremes.
* * *
—
“DON’T GET ME wrong. I’m happy that you brought home enough Taco Bell to feed a small, bean-loving army, but . . . are you okay?” Kirsten asked, squinting at her.
“Your mascara is . . . Well, it’s everywhere,” Eleanor said, gesturing toward her face. “I think some ended up on your neck.”
“I am not okay,” Teddy said. “In fact, you might say I’m terrible. Everett is moving to New York, and we broke up.”
“New York, New York?” Kirsten asked.
“Well, it’s certainly not New York, Ohio,” Teddy said, shoving a Cinnamon Twist into her mouth.
“And he broke up with you?” Eleanor asked, grabbing a Cinnamon Twist of her own (Teddy had bought two servings for each of them, figuring they were mostly air).
Teddy shrugged. “I broke up with him. Same diff. I mean, what else were we going to do? Date long-distance? I’m a grown woman, not a lovelorn teenager who met a boyfriend at summer camp.”
Kirsten picked up Teddy’s cup and sniffed it. “Is this Mountain Dew Baja Blast spiked with something? Because you are acting . . .”
“Unhinged,” Eleanor said. “And I mean that with love.”
“I’m completely hinged,” Teddy said with her mouth full. “But I can’t do that. I can’t give up everything to be with another guy. I did that once and it didn’t work out well, and just because Everett is smart and sweet and sexy doesn’t mean anything. I thought Richard was pretty great when we started dating, too.”
“Mmmm, did you, though?” Eleanor asked thoughtfully. “Granted, I wasn’t there, but did you really see him and think, ‘Ah, yes, this man is sweet and smart and sexy’? Or did you have low self-esteem?”
“Damn,” Kirsten muttered, taking a noisy drink through her straw.
“Oh, speaking of Richard!” Teddy’s eyes widened. “He called me and said he dumped his superhero girlfriend and he misses me!”
“Oh, no,” Kirsten said. “What did you do?”
“I told him to go fuck himself!” Teddy said with a cackle. “Oh, I’m eating too much. I’m gonna feel this tomorrow.”
“Please slow down,” Eleanor muttered. “This place only has one bathroom.”
“He should go fuck himself,” Kirsten agreed. “Honestly, that’s too good a fate for him. So did he want you back?”
Teddy snorted. “Who knows? Richard’s problems are no longer my problems.”
Kirsten leaned forward to give her a high five.