"I thought you'd never ask," she said grinning. "Last I saw her, she was great."
"Yeah?"
"She has a year before she graduates, her own place without a roommate… She's great," she said. Good. That was good but I could have guessed that myself. I could have heard that from anyone, my dad probably could have told me that. I wanted more.
"Is she seeing anyone?" I asked.
"You sure you want the answer to that question?" she asked.
Fuck, I should have seen that one coming. Ron was incredible, there was no way she would still be single. She was the kind of girl a lawyer fifteen years her senior would try to marry. She was the kind of girl a freshman would be begging to give him a chance; any guy would be begging for a shot with her. She was perfect. Smart, funny, ambitious, driven, and she was mine. Up until a year ago, she had been mine. Now some other guy got to say that.
"Who is he? Do I know him?"
"You don't. His name is Sean. I think he's a philosophy major or something. They met at school."
"How long have they been together?"
"Why do you have so many questions about your ex?" she challenged.
"She's your friend. I just figure I'm going to see her again. We were together for a long time."
"Yeah, and then you dumped her."
"You think I don't remember that? I'm not proud."
"It took you a year to realize that?"
"I thought I was doing the right thing."
"You have had an entire year to think about this and you still think it was the right thing to do?"
"I can't change what I did. I made that choice, and I had to stick to it."
"And continuing to lie to her? What about that choice? Why would you let her keep thinking you thought she was a burden to you?"
"That's not what I said to her."
"You haven't said anything different. All she knows is you loved her one day, and you were telling her it was over the next. You're my brother, so it isn't my place to say anything to her, but that was fucked up, Roman. And, it's wrong to pretend you really cared what those words you said did to her after all this time."
"I do care, Tiff. You think I liked dumping her? You think it got me off seeing her crying and breaking her heart? I felt like an asshole. It took everything inside of me not to go after her. I hurt her, but it fucked me up, too."
"And now you're back. What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I just want to know how she is, Tiffany. Don't tell me if you don't want to. I cared about her for a long time, and that didn't change after we broke up." She looked at me coolly from the other side of the table like she was debating whether or not to tell me about Veronica.
"She's had time to get closure. Don't do anything stupid and rip that scab off," she warned.
"Is she happy with that new guy?"
"I don't know what she sees in him, but there must be something. She seems to like him."
"That's not what I asked," I said.
"She's doing great at school, dating a new guy, and on her way to graduating with honors. Yes. She's pretty happy, Roman."
Fine. That was all I needed to know. That was good, I wanted her to be happy. After the way, we had left things and the last things we had said to each other, her being happy was all I could ask for. I just had to make sure. I had been that guy who got to make her happy so long, I just wanted to make sure that was still happening. Like I didn't fuck her up by accident after breaking it off with her. It sucked that she was dating but that wasn't my business anymore. At least she was happy...right?
Chapter Six