I had lots of acquaintances and I knew there were friends who cared about me a lot. But everyone had their own lives and their own struggles; it was hard for them to pull away from their life and come be part of mine.
“Thanks, Mattie. So how are you and Markus doing? I really do appreciate you guys coming to the art show with me. You know I hate going to those alone.”
“We broke up,” she said.
Normally, a good friend would act shocked at the notion of her best friend breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, but I was truly excited. I wanted to scream happily at the top of my lungs. He had treated her badly for far too long.
I also wasn’t sure that Mattie was going to stay broken up with him, so I had to walk a very narrow line as I waited to see if it would last.
The two of them had broken up before and I had talked badly about Markus, then when Mattie decided to get back together with the guy, I had to play nice. This time, I was going to play it as neutral as possible until I knew for sure that they weren’t going to get back together.
Although, I really, really hoped she didn’t get back with him. Mattie deserved a love like she hadn’t experienced yet, and if she stayed with Markus, she might miss her opportunity.
“Oh, what happened?” I managed to ask calmly.
“You know, it just didn’t work out. I’m going to try and get me one of these guys from our website. It seemed to work for you, so maybe it will work for me, too.”
“I don’t know, it was sort of a lucky break for me,” I said. “I browsed through some of the other profiles and a lot of them are really old. I wouldn’t have gone out with very many of the other guys I sa
w on the app.
“But maybe if you put a little time into looking through them, you’ll find someone. Margret in marketing said that the really good guys find a woman really fast and then take their profiles down. Maybe it’s just a matter of catching them when they get on.”
“I’ve decided that looks and age are no longer my criteria. I want rich and nice,” she said as she put on a pretend happy face. “I’m fine with dating one of the old guys. I’ll learn to love him, I promise.”
“Are you sure you’re doing all right?” I asked. I could see the sadness behind her smile. “It’s okay to be sad about Markus. I’ll be here no matter what. You have to know that.”
Mattie quickly turned into a puddle of tears as she started sobbing in the middle of the lunch room. Her crying was making quite the scene, but I wasn’t about to try and stop her. Markus was a jerk, and she had dedicated a lot of her time to him, she deserved to have a good cry over those wasted months of her life.
“I loved him,” she whimpered through her tears.
“I’m sorry, honey. I’m here. Do you want me to cancel my date for Friday so the two of us can go out?”
“Absolutely not! What, do you think I’m some kind of animal? I need you to go out with this guy and prove to me that there are decent men out there. This has to happen,” she said with a totally serious look on her face.
“It’s still possible that he’s not a decent man, you know,” I said.
“Nope, I refuse to believe that. He sounds pretty damn good to me, and I need you to follow through with this guy. Don’t start getting all freaked out the second the two of you get close. I know it’s hard,” she said. “Well, okay, I don’t know how hard it is to lose a husband, but I know you and I know you’ve been through such a tough few years. You really deserve to just have some fun. This guy doesn’t have to be the happily ever part two guy; he can just be the guy who gives you lots of orgasms and makes you smile.”
“Yeah, that’s the guy I need,” I said. “A fun guy who gives me lots of orgasms and doesn’t cause me any heartache.”
“Me, too. Find out if he has a brother. We could both have the perfect guy.”
Even when I wasn’t up for talking with Mattie, she had a way of brightening my spirits. She had taken my mind off of what was going on at work and moved it onto the delicious Brandon Baker.
“I don’t actually know all that much about him. I know he sold his parts manufacturing company last year for over a billion dollars. I think his parents live out east, and he’s an only child.”
“A billion? Like the letter B?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, he’s a great catch, for sure. I mean, it’s not all about the money and I know that’s not important to you. But he’s got to be really smart if he built a company that was worth that kind of money,” she said. “Plus, he’s really damn handsome and makes you smile from ear-to-ear, so that’s a definite good sign.”
“I also know he lost his son to cancer six years ago,” I said as I let Brandon’s secret out of the bag.
I had debated whether or not to tell her, but I just couldn’t keep that big of a secret to myself. Plus, he was a pretty public figure around Los Angeles, and I figured details about his son’s illness were probably posted on the internet anyways.
“No, that’s horrible,” Mattie said as her normal smiling face turned to a frown.