Page 20 of The Ring
I granted, “I do, but?—”
The whole fucking city is like a big reminder of him.
Bond Street—where he kissed me for the first time after years of not kissing each other, and all the times we shopped there together, him carrying my bags.
The London Eye, looking over Elizabeth Tower—the spot where he told me he loved me for the first time and asked me to be his girlfriend. It was extremely cheeky, but I loved it. Except for the fighting part.
Regent Park and Hyde Park—every walk we took there, hand in hand.
Carlos Place—my favourite street in the whole city, now tainted by all the times we spent there.
And Wilton Crescent—which I can’t even let myself think about.
And that’s to name a few; I could go on for hours.
It’s so hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember. Especially when there’s hardly a place in the world that doesn’t remind you of him.
“TJ,” he finished the sentence for me.
I nodded.
“You haven’t mentioned him once the whole time I’ve been here,” he pointed out.
“Not really a fan of talking about him.”
He smiled, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “I can understand.”
“What happened between you and Amelie?” I probably—definitely—shouldn’t have asked, especially since he hadn’t asked me about what happened between me and TJ, but I couldn’t help myself. The part of my brain that filters everything I say was, at that moment, out of service.
“I’m also not a fan of talking about her.”
“How about you tell me yours and I tell you mine?” I surprised myself by saying it. What happened between TJ and me is my least favourite topic of conversation, but Nate had alook I recognised from the mirror, and the only word I could find to describe it washeartbroken.
It kind of felt like he was the only one of my friends who could truly understand how I felt.
He considered it for a second, then downed what was left of his wine and said, “Fine, but if we’re doing this, we’re going to need more wine.”
I smiled. “I think you just read my mind.”
He got up from the couch and headed to the cellar. A few minutes later, he returned with a new bottle of wine. He opened it, poured some into my empty glass, then his, and set the bottle on the table in front of us.
Nate took a few sips of wine. “The last couple of months, I had my mind on other…” He glanced around the room, as if searching for the right word, “things.” His eyes returned to me. “I wasn’t exactly being a good boyfriend. I was really busy, and it started to bother her. We had a fight, and she broke up with me.”
“What an arsehole,” I said, fired up. “Of course you were occupied. You were making your company public. It’s not like brushing your teeth. She should have been more understanding.”
He gave me a half-smile. “She’s not an arsehole. She put up with a lot. If I were in her shoes, I’d probably have done the same.”
Maybe I was being a little mean—after all, he knows her better than I do—but if you hurt my friends, you become my number one enemy. And if you really love someone, you stay for the good and the bad, and don’t leave when things get hard, especially when they’re transient.
“You’re entitled to your opinion,” I declared. “But to me, what she did was an arsehole move.”
“I agree to disagree,” Nate said.
“I’ll allow itthistime.”
He rolled his eyes playfully. “Now it’s your turn. Why did you and TJ break up?”
“TJ and I?” I acted confused. “I was going to tell you about what happened with Robert.”
