“Wait.” I wasn’t going to let this guy just walk out of my life when I felt a connection to him, when I enjoyed seeing him every day, when he seemed too good to be true. “You wanna…go out sometime?” I’d promised myself I would never ask out a guy again, not after what happened with Vince, but if I didn’t take this chance now, I would regret it.
He turned back around and gave me a slight smile, but it was obvious it wasn’t genuine. Whenever he was being sincere, his eyes lit up too, and they didn’t now. “If I were in a different time in my life, I would take that offer in a heartbeat. But…I’m just not. I’m pretty fucked up and I’m going to be fucked up for a really long time, and you deserve better than that.”
All I could do was digest that disappointment and really feel it, feel my joy disappear. I’d been rejected before, but it had never hurt as much as it did now. I’d downplayed my affection for him because we were worked together and he never seemed interested, but now it was obvious how much I really wanted him. It’d only been six weeks since Vince, but I was ready to at least try.
He studied me for a moment, probably seeing the disappointment plastered on my face like a neon sign. “See you around.” He turned around and walked off, walked out of my life without turning back, without a hint of regret.
I was the one who felt all the regret because I knew that man was one in a million, a shooting star that you rarely saw, an eclipse that only happened once in a millennium. And just like a shooting star, he came and went in an instant—and all I had left was the memory.
Cleo wasn’t warm like she usually was.
She was quiet, contemplative, saying very little, and never showing off her smile.
I wondered if it was because of Dex.
I shouldn’t ask, but I couldn’t help it. “What happened with Dex?”
She was staring at her computer with her fingers on the keyboard, but she wasn’t typing, like she was in a daydream. She cleared her throat before she pulled her hands from the keyboard. “He put in his two weeks.”
“He told me he got a job at a lab.”
She nodded. “Yeah, he mentioned that.” She bowed her head, as if she was overwhelmed with sadness. She inhaled a deep breath like she was trying to keep it together.
“You okay?” I asked gently.
“I…have a lot going on right now.” She cleared her throat again.
“Dex told me he wasn’t going back to medicine, so I guess your idea isn’t happening.”
She shook her head and continued to look at her computer. “Unfortunately.”
“I asked him out… He said no.”
Cleo turned to look at me for the first time. “I didn’t know you felt that way about him.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t either. But when he left without saying goodbye to me, I just felt so sad. That was when I realized how much I would miss him, how much I want him in my life. Most of the available men out there totally suck, and I can tell that Dex is special. Even before I knew he was a doctor, I knew he was special. After the way Vince hurt me, I didn’t think I was ready to date, but I had to make my move because Dex is one of a kind.” I sighed as I remembered the last time I saw him. “But he said he wasn’t interested, so…that’s that.”
She stared at me for a while, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t decide if she should.
Then her husband walked up to her desk, his bag over his shoulder, and he looked down at her with the same lifeless expression, like he was just going through the motions to make it through the day.
She acknowledged his presence with a look.
He continued to stare, unblinking, his eyes heavy.
Wordlessly, she grabbed her things and walked off with him, not holding hands like they usually did. There were several feet between them, their affection nonexistent. I barely knew either one of them, but I’d watched their interactions since the day I started here, and I could tell something was wrong.
Really wrong.
Without Dex there, my job felt totally different.
My coworkers were great and my boss was the best, but a bit of sunshine had disappeared when Dex walked out. I didn’t even have his number to ask how he was doing, if he liked his new job.
Maybe it was better that way.
Toward the end of the workday, I pushed the cart to the residence and unlocked the door so I could carry the groceries inside and into the kitchen. My feet were killing me in these heels, so when no one was around, I kicked off my shoes and did everything barefoot.