The Art of Loving

[25] Let's Talk about ...

"I'm not," he quickly assured her. "I believe you, I'm just surprised to hear that. I never thought she'd be the kind of person to do that. So far she's seemed so nice.."

"Well, girls aren't always what they seem when it comes to guys," Ellie said, looking down. "I never thought my cousin would date my ex but things like that happen, deal with it. Marcia isn't nice to me, you have to make up your mind who you believe."

Brian didn't seem to happy about that. "Ellie, I don't ever want you to ask me to choose between you and a friend. I can see why you want that here but -"

Ellie interrupted him before he could finish. "I'm not asking you to choose, Brian. When did I say that? I'm not crazy, I don't freak out if you talk to your female friends, but if you doubt me in a situation like this even though you don't really have a reason for that then I have to ask myself how serious you are about this."

"So you're telling me to just never question what you say?" Brian asked, apparently not very happy with the situation.

"No," Ellie sighed and shook her head. "No, I didn't say that, Brian. It's good if you question me sometimes, but not constantly. You're one of the few people I'm really honest with, but I know myself and if you don't appreciate that then why should I be honest with you? Doesn't really make a difference then, I might as well tell you anything because you don't believe me anyway."

"I do believe you," Brian tried to convince her.

"If you really believed me we wouldn't be having this conversation," Ellie reminded him.

Brian shook his head. "No, that's not right, Ellie. I do believe you, Ellie, but we need to talk about things even if you're not happy about that. I just can't believe that I've been so wrong about Marcia when it comes to that. I can't believe she thought it would be okay to insult you, I honestly thought she would respect you more than that. If she cares so much about me, shouldn't she at least respect my girlfriend? Accept that I've found someone who makes me happy?"

Ellie dared to smile a little when she heard him say that. She seemed to have cracked his resistance to what she was saying. "You would think, that's what I hoped for but apparently not."

"Yeah, it seems like that. I can't believe she was playing so nice, she was talking to me as if nothing had happened before..."

"Well, that's how the female brain works in a lot of cases sadly," Ellie told him.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Ellie... I hope you're not too upset with me," he said, smiling sheepishly.

But Ellie shook her head. "No, I'm not, don't worry. I treated you a lot worse in the beginning, even if I wanted to be upset with you I wouldn't really have a reason."

"You can be upset with me if you want to be though," he said with a small smile and placed his hands on her arms. "I'd rather you get it out than that you bottle it all up until tiny things upset you, you know?"

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. That makes sense, I'll remember that. For the future, if I'm upset with you I'll definitely let you know," she said with a smile.

"Good, I think that's best," Brian agreed and smiled back. "So are we okay again?"

Ellie confirmed that with a nod. "Yes, we are. Thank you for listening to me."

"Thank you for talking to me. Do you want me to go talk to Marcia? See if she has anything to say in her defence?"

Ellie shook her head. "You don't have to do that, really."

"You don't want me to talk to her again, do you?" Brian asked with a small smile.

"I can't say I'm keen on that, no. But if you want to talk to her to see what she has to say then you can do that of course. Like I said, I'm not crazy jealous, I'm -"