#ILoveYou #YouLoveHer

#HimItsReallyHim

Michelle

"Tia and Nate?" he asked. "I always thought that he liked you..."

"A long time ago," I responded. "These days it's like a wall between us. I'm not supposed to talk to him, because Tia might flip out or something."

"It's weird," I continued. "Someone who used to always be there for you. Always placed you first. Suddenly just turns around and forgets about you. It's like I don't even exist in his universe anymore."

"Well, that's what you get for rejecting him in the first place. Besides, I thought you used to find him annoying."

"A little bit," I admitted. "But I'm just as annoyed now. I hate being ignored even more," I said, before I remembered who I was talking to.

I was talking to him. Like how I talked to Nate. I was talking to him like a friend. Only a friend.

Hi girlfriend was running late, that's the only reason we get to talk, just the two of us.

"But it's unfair, it's like I lost both my friends," I argued.

"You should just be happy for them. And give them the space they need," he said.

"I am happy for them. And I'm giving them all the space in the world."

"I wasn't aware that you're the felt that feels lonely."

"That's a type? And what makes me that type?" I asked.

"It's just you've always been so independent."

"Oh, right. I'm alone, but I'm not lonely," I said. "I get it. I guess, I was that person. Or maybe I still am that person."

"So you really didn't find any guys on your trip?" he asked with a glint in his eye.

"I did have a crush on my supervisor."

He chuckled. "And how did that go?"

"Well, he wears glasses, Chinese, a little pale, thin and adorable nerdy, you know, totally my type," I started, before I realized that aside from the glasses bit, I was describing him.

"Anyway, he was super obsessive compulsive, very very quite, doesn't really socialize or anything," I continued. "But something about all that was just cute to me."

"Sounds perfect, so what happened?" he asked. "Let me guess, you never told him about your crush."

"Because that would be unprofessional," I said. "And because I quit my job, and then the rest of our department also happened to quit around the same time. And he thought that we are all in on it. That we all talked about leaving together. And so he kind of flipped, and um, started blaming the heads of other departments for stressing us out, making our jobs harder, which is why we all left, oh and he expressed those thoughts during a meeting, with all the department heads and our boss present. And then he started posting cryptic messages on Facebook. One day, he just took out all his posts, and I think he unfriended me," I said in one breath.

He just laughed.

"Yes, he unfriended me. It was that bad," I reiterated.

"That is the end of the world," he said with a smirk.

"That's okay, I mean, I'll never see him ever again."

"Ever again?" he laughed again at my exaggeration.

"It's actually surprisingly to never see someone ever again, when you live in two different countries. So anyways, my trip was a bust- And then I come back home to find all my friends all coupled up. So here I am. All by my alone-but-not-lonely self."

"Well, you still have me," he said. "As a friend."

As a friend.

And then his girlfriend arrived. And we are all supposed to play board games, as if this is not the most awkward thing in the world.