𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕣 ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕜

Chapter Six

Andrew

"Camping, huh?" Ted replied over the phone. I had given him a call shortly after I arrived back at my apartment that night to gauge his interest. "I'll be honest with you Andrew, I don't really do camping."

"Come on, please? It'll be really fun. I think you'll like Gary, and I've heard so much about his husband and the rest of his friends. I really want to meet everyone." I was pacing back and forth in the kitchen with my glass of water and evening vitamins in my hands. I quickly gulped them down.

"I said I don't do camping, Andrew. Look... I understand you want to go, but I'm not interested in hanging out with a bunch of guys who I don't know, in the outdoors, without running water, with bugs, pretending to be interested in hearing people's stories about their...whatevers. No reception. Gross food. Why would I want to do all that?"

"...Because I'm there? Because you want to spend time with me. Because you care about me. Because you know that this is something I would like to do. Because you're my boyfriend."

"Andrew, you know how I feel about you... But this isn't it. I'm sorry. Just because I'm your boyfriend doesn't mean I have to subject myself to doing things I don't like... It's actually kind of rude for you to pressure me into it. You shouldn't make people do things they don't want to do, Andy."

He was really something else, the way he always turned things on me like that.

"It's fine." I caught myself, thinking of Vince all of a sudden and how he knew so well what 'it's fine' really meant. I smiled to myself at the inside joke, but my heart fell a bit. I wished I had inside jokes with Ted, and I bet Vince had inside jokes with Sam.

"Thanks, babe. Maybe we can do something else this weekend. You name the place, any place, I'll buy you dinner."

I rolled my eyes, glad that he wasn't able to witness my reaction to his alternative suggestion. Ted was gorgeous, but he was incredibly dense. Apparently Ted didn't know what 'it's fine' meant. He didn't take anything I'd just said to heart.

I wasn't surprised, our communication challenges had been there from the beginning, but I was so frustrated with him. We were working okay, but... I wanted more than okay.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Look... I don't think you understood that. I'm still going."

"What?"

"I'm going. My friend Gary wants me to go and meet his husband and all his friends. It's important to him that I go, so...I'm going. I'll call you Sunday when I get back and have reception. I'm going to hang up now Ted, and –" I paused, gathering the courage to continue speaking my mind and set a boundary, "I need some space this weekend. I need to think. I'll call you on Sunday night once I'm back, okay?"

I began to hear Ted's audible protests on the other line. "Please don't call, Ted, I won't have reception. I'll call you on Sunday."

I hung up, ignoring Ted's name as it illuminated my phone screen with his immediate callback. I didn't expect him to follow my direction of not calling me, but it still annoyed me that nothing I ever wanted seemed important to him. Didn't he just nag me for not respecting his boundary?

Yeah... I wasn't sure if this was working, me and Ted.

When I thought about why, and why I was trying so hard to make it work with Ted despite the challenges, I felt most of it was my stubbornness to find success with dating apps. I did have some great dates with Ted, the sex was good, but it seemed that everything else that mattered wasn't happening the way I felt it should. Everything was just...lackluster.