i prefer spontaneous goodbyes, like when you don't know that that will be the last time you see the person until after the goodbyes have been said. the other kind, the kind i hate, are the goodbyes that you know are coming. the ones you practice in your head and in the mirror. the ones you play off as no big deal, though they seem to be able to keep you from eating. such is the goodbye i had last night.
remember when i said that i found out my ex was seeing some girl with short hair? well, that occurred when i went to his house one night after happy hour with some co-workers. after he and his roommate had had too much wine, and we had a dance-off to beyonce, which ended with a wrestling match during which i was dropped on my head, i spent the night. nothing happened. in fact, he slept on the couch and gave me his room. i found his gentleman-ness highly inappropriate and frustrating. in any case, i fell asleep. i woke up the next morning, plopped down on the couch and "jokingly" asked him why he could not sleep in the same room with me now. after much hemin' and hawin', he told me it was because he was seeing somebody. at first i was cool with it...in some alternate universe anyway (that's when i discovered that they'd met at a bar two months before and she had short hair).
but my facade didn't last very long, and i had to leave. immediately. i didn't want to look at him or talk to him. i just wanted to get out before that swell emotions arrived and i would undoubtedly start to cry. i wasn't angry. hell, how could i be? we weren't together, and he was too much of a goddamned gentleman to do anything deliciously inappropriate with me. so i wasn't angry, but god i was hurt. we had so much fun together, and us hanging out was cool as long as he stuck to his stance of "i'm just not ready to date right now." at least then i knew he wasn't seeing anybody. at least then i believed (wrongfully) that eventually he would realize that i was the best girl he'd ever met and he couldn't and shouldn't live without me. but when i found none of that to be true, i couldn't deal. i left wearing some of his clothes, which i promised to get to him later. he said he didn't want to tell me because he knew i wouldn't want to hang out with him anymore and wondered aloud if that was in fact the case now. i said, i didn't know, but as i drove home and cried, and cried on the sidewalk much to the dismay of the construction workers and then cried in my bathtub and then cried in the car again on my way to "decorate cookies" with my bosses, a few things became very clear: i harbored some very strong, very unreciprocated feelings, and as a result, it was in my best interest not to see or talk to him ever again. granted, i'd sworn to that before (see previous entries), but i never really wanted that. and i didn't want it now, but it became unmistakable apparent that i had to actually go through with it. fortunately, i'd been down this road before with other boys, so this wasn't entirely new territory. but familiarity didn't make it any easier. (did i mention that this entry is not at going to be funny or inspiring or delightful in anyway? i guess i should have done that before you got invested.)
so i did what the heartbroken do best. i sent a flurry of text messages, expressing in overly dramatic fashion that i could not bear to lay eyes on him again and therefore i would have to leave his clothes on my doorstep for him to retrieve when i was out of town. that didn't fly with him. so i offered to mail them, which also didn't fly. so around December 18, i stuffed them in a grocery bag, threw them in the back of my closet and hopped across three states, hoping that when (if) i returned, all of this shit would be a distant memory.
and it was, for the most part. i still thought about him/it/whatever. but there was nary another tear shed, and i never once felt tempted to pick up the phone and call (assisted by the fact that i'd deleted his number) or send an email. i wasn't perfect, but i was pretty darn good and that was good enough for me.
but then sunday came. and the phone rang, and it was him, and he wanted his sweatshirt and t-shirt back. i felt cold, not because i wanted to be but because i had to be. if i didn't give one word answers and avoid asking him anything about his life, how else would i protect the progress i'd made and peace of mind i'd gained?
as soon as we agreed on a day for him to pick up these belongings, i cursed myself for walking out of the apartment with his damn clothes on, and i cursed him for needing these non-essential items back. i have a couple of sweatshirts and things that past boys never retrieved, and i'm pretty sure they never missed them and probably couldn't fit in them now if they wanted to. i felt pretty vomit-ous last night as i waited for him to pick up his stuff. i think i feared the finality of it all as well as the resurgence of any feelings i'd worked so hard to eradicate. i don't remember ever looking him in the eye, though i must have at some point. after i handed him his clothes, and we stood awkwardly by the door while jeopardy played in the background, the question came, "so does this mean we're not friends?"
me: we already had this discussion.
him: so i guess that's a no.
me: it's not that i don't want to be your friend. it's not...it's not that i don't want to be your friend.
him: you either do or you don't.
i can't remember saying anything else except "i finally got air in them," referring to my bike tires, and "have a good night," as i closed the door.
what else was there to say? clearly the complexity of me wanting to and yet not being able to have him in my life is lost on him. and the simplicity of his proposed friendship is lost on me. and there aren't any words that are going to help us find each other on some common ground.
i sat on a my couch for a while afterward, holding my eyes, hoping that would prevent anything for coming out of them. then i went for a short walk in the cold. i came back home, called my mom, put on my pajamas (but left my boots on...i know, i'm weird), then laid on the couch and watched TV. i was sad, but i didn't cry. and that hole in my chest didn't open as wide as before. so i guess that means i'm gonna be alright. (cue chirping birds, sunlight breaking through clouds and the goddamn violins. this is some Terms of Endearment shit right here).
anyway, let me end this emotional dry-heave that's taken up 4 hours of my work day (praaaaaise the lord) with a shoutout to fatty mcmasturbator who didn't come home last night. for the first time in all the months that i've lived in my place, she just didn't come home. i was able to keep my TV at a normal volume all night, and i didn't wake up to the sound of hulk walking around on my ceiling. as i was coming out of my sleep, i could have sworn that i heard on the news that she'd been caught up in a bank robbery. i told myself to remember to google that story when i got to work. i'll let you know what i find.
i'm going to be okay (for now) in L.A.
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