"Hey, how was work today?" I asked Jake as he walked through the door with all his work materials. After Zach and I had broken up, I fell back onto drinking and had to go to rehab for 3 months. Even though rehab was hell, it was where I met Jake. It's not exactly your sappy love story, but it was good enough for us. Jake was the supervisor of my division of the rehab facility and we withheld our feelings for each other until the three months were over. He wasted no time in swooping me off my feet and proposing to me. We moved in together and that was that.
"Sucky, as per usual." He responded as he threw his briefcase onto the couch in the living room. Typical Jake, he came home and made a mess of the apartment I spent all day cleaning.
"That better be gone by the time I get home from the store." I threatened as I pointed to the wreckage he had already done in the past three minutes. Boys will be boys.
"Okay. Will you get me some ice cream?"
"Sure. Bye, love you." I quickly said as I walked out the door and down to my car.
-
I was just about finished shopping when I remembered the ice cream Jake wanted me to get for him. I made my way to the freezer section when I ran into a familiar face.
"Rose?"
"Zach?" I gasped. It had been two years since the last time I heard from Zach and it hadn't exactly ended on a good note.
"Hey, it's been a while."
"Ya, a little bit over two years." I half whispered. We had barely been talking for a minute and I already couldn't wait for this conversation to be over.
"So what have you been up to?"
"Not much. Nothing exciting, at least. How about you?"
"I've still been busy with youtube. You know how it is." He said as if it was no big deal. His eyes kept flickering from me to the cash registers up front and I could tell he wanted this conversation to be over just as much as I did.
"Actually, I don't know. After the whole 'I don't want you in my life thing' I had to go to rehab for a few months and after that, it was too late to continue."
"Ba- Rose, look, I'm sorry about what I did two years ago. I was stupid and immature. I've changed since then." He said with pleading eyes. I could tell he almost fell into old habits and called me 'baby' but caught himself. It was all too familiar.
"People don't change. Circumstances do."
"People do change. Let me show you that I did. Let me take you out for coffee sometime."
"Zach, I hate coffee. You of all people should know that." I scoffed. Had he really forgotten everything about me in the past couple of years? Did I really mean that little to him?
"But you love hot chocolate. There's this really good coffee place downtown that has the best hot chocolate."
"Fine. You have a 30 minute hot chocolate date to prove to me that you have changed. Use it wisely."
"Are you free right now?" I thought about it, Jake wouldn't mind if I was home a little bit late. I could just tell him there was a long line.
"Ya, sure."
-
We walked to the coffee shop in silence, leaving our cars at the Kroger we were at. We arrived at the coffee shop within five minutes of walking and took a seat at a small table in the middle of the room.
"So what have you really been up to?" He asked as we took seats across from each other.
"Literally nothing. I live in the same apartment that I lived in when we were together, I quit my job, and I quit Youtube."
