Page 115 of The Great Dating Fake Off
I jump to my feet and reach for the curtain. Sebastian swipes our printed photos from the booth and then my stuffed duck from the top of the claw machine as we rush out of the arcade.
Enzo and Ro are squared off in the seating area next to our lane.
Benji and Alessia awkwardly hover by the ball return machine as if unsure whether to get involved.
Sebastian clears his throat as we move closer. “Hey, is everything—”
“You can’t possibly blame this all on me!” Ro jabs her finger against Enzo’s chest. “You’re really going to pretend like it doesn’t bother you that no one in your family will ever like me? That they hate the mother of your future children?”
“We knew our families didn’t like one another, but we decided that’s not a dealbreaker. We’d accepted that. I was blindsided when you called off the wedding, don’t you get that?”
“I do get it. But I’m trying to be realistic.”
“We just had to make it through that one week—”
“What about life afterward, though? That was just the opening ceremonies to the hating Olympics of our future with them. You’re not willing to cut your family out and neither am I. Where does that leave us? What about raising our kids with our families still very much involved?”
Enzo rakes his fingers through his hair. “Very much involved? I’m the one who will raise our kids with you, Rosalina! You and I. You act like your mother will be delivering the baby herself!”
“She might help! My mother will be involved, Enzo. Whether I want her around all the time or not, I’m going to need her help. They would be willing. Far more than your dad or grandmother, mind you.”
His eyes fall shut. “I will schedule a meeting with my dad to talk to him. Will that fix this?”
“You can talk to your dad all you want, but will it change his mind about me? He’s set in his ways. Right, Alessia?”
“Oh, I don’t— Maybe?” Alessia tugs on the neck of her hoodie as if it’s strangling her. “Maybe what you need is to sit down somewhere quiet and really talk this out? Maybe using your inside voices?”
“Rosalina doesn’t have an inside voice!” Enzo yells.
“Neither do you!” Ro yells back. “Maybe it’s better we endure the pain of breaking up now to avoid pain later when they inevitably wear us down so bad it ruins our marriage.”
“That is the most depressing thing I ever heard. Pain now to avoid pain later? Sabotaging a marriage before it even begins? Can someone tell her how ridiculous that sounds, please?” Enzo blusters.
My eyes meet Sebastian’s. A muscle in his jaw jumps.
Avoid pain later by ripping off a Band-Aid now: the foundational belief for avoiding long-distance relationships.
Is this what’s coming for him and I? Pain later because we didn’t put an end to this thing sooner? We’ve known all along he’s leaving. We tried to distance ourselves—unsuccessfully. And now, the more time we spend together, the more it feels like we’re barreling headfirst toward a relationship.
I will never stop wanting you.
That may be true for both of us, but it won’t change our situation.
Benji crosses his arms. “My honest opinion is that people put way too much pressure on the idea of marriage. It’s more of a legal contract than anything.”
“Benji,” I groan. “You are not helping.”
Ro’s eyes shine with tears as she whirls toward her brother. “You think I shouldn’t marry him?”
“I’m not saying that,” Benji argues. “I was just speaking broadly, saying people tend to— Please stop crying.”
“It’s all I do these days,” she mutters.
Enzo casts a miserable look at Ro. “Then why didn’t you just call me? Why did we need four people to orchestrate this conversation?”
“Because it hurts too much, all right?” Ro’s voice is razor-sharp as mascara streaks down her cheek. Her voice carries down the lanes, drawing several sets of curious eyes. “This isn’t easy for me. I’m a fucking mess!”
“I’m hurting too, Rosalina! I was the one alone in our house when you left. You don’t have a monopoly on suffering.”
