Us And Them...

Chapter Eleven

For a hot minute she thought about all the times she was the one in his arms, smiling and laughing without a care in the world. Letting tear after tear drop on her screen as she viewed that Instagram post, she reminisced all the sweet moments they shared together and found herself sobbing a little louder than usual. She had to admit it, she was jealous, so jealous she wanted to get into that screen and pull them apart.

Why did he have to do her like that? Lola thought, letting out one sniffle after the other. She was way past her mid-twenties now, her pals were happily married and here she was without a boyfriend, not even an ordinary talking stage. What was the point of keeping herself for so long only to get her heart broken from the first man she ever let herself love?

She had lied about deleting all their pics and videos, well technically, they were not in her phone's gallery but were backed up to her cloud and in moments like these, she went through the pain of watching each and every one of them. What happened to the love she used to see in this man's eyes for her? The love everyone else saw and pointed out that he was keeper. Now he looked at someone else the same way he used to look at her. It hurt so bad.

The shrill ringtone of her phone drowned her sobs. Wiping her eyes that had been blinded by tears, she unknowingly picked up the call.

"Lola?"

"Hi Eric." Unfortunately for her, her voice broke as she said the words.

"Are you okay?" His tone was quickly laced with concern.

"Yeah, yeah. What's up?" She tried to play down the hoarse state of her voice.

"Have you been crying?" He asked.

"No." She answered a little too quickly. That gave her away.

"Where are you?"

She took a minute to respond, "I'm in my office."

"I'll be there soon." He dropped the call.

Thirty minutes later, he was right in front of her probing her for answers to be sure she was okay. Why did he have to go and remind her of David with how fast he came over, it bringing more tears to her eyes.

"Lola please stop crying. Tell me what's going on, let me help in any way that I can." He said, handing her his handkerchief so she could wipe her teary eyes.

She shook her head. He didn't have any business knowing about her past relationship and why it was hurting her months after, even when the man she was crying over had apparently moved on with his life and had forgotten her.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said returning his handkerchief and instead blowing into yet another tissue her snotty nose.

"Okay, at least let me cheer you up. Are you hungry? Should I order something for you? Should we go somewhere or should I just drive you home?"

She shook her head in the negative to everyone of those questions. He let out an exhausted sigh.

"Are you going through a heartbreak Lola?" He asked, scanning her teary eyes and the tight grip on her phone.

Lola swallowed, "I am," she managed a nod.

"Do I know this person?" He asked calmly.

"It's my ex-boyfriend." Referring to him as that made her cry even more. How did her David go from being her man to her ex, just like that?!

"It's okay Lola. You just have to move on." Eric didn't know what to do with his hands, reach out and console her or just stay put and say encouraging words. She found his puzzlement cute, at least he respected her enough to not cross certain boundaries.