Our Way

“Not turning your phone on?”

“I’ve nothing to say.”

Silence hangs between us.

“You know, when he winked at me—.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I cut him off.

“Look, I feel shitty enough about it, okay?”

I shake my head in disgust. It’s always all about him. “Okay,” I reply flatly.

“I apologize; I should have kept quiet.”

“Yeah, you should have.”

We fall silent.

“That’s it?” he asks.

“What do you want me to say, Nathan?”

He exhales heavily, and we fall silent again.

“Is your room nice?” he asks to try and make conversation.

I roll my eyes. “Yep.”

“You’re not going to talk to me?”

“I told you, I have nothing to say.”

“This is about the Stephanie thing, isn’t it?”

I shrug, is it…I don’t even know. “Maybe.”

“But we talked about it and you said you understood.”

“I didn’t say I understood. I acknowledged what happened. I also acknowledged that she’s your friend and you’ve been spending time with her since it happened.”

“Stop it.”

“Those are the facts, Nathan, are they not? Do you or do you not spend time with her?”

“At work, Eliza. I can’t help seeing her there.”

“At a ball, two meters from me, while you laugh at your secret jokes with her is not fucking work, Nathan. Stop insulting my intelligence.”

“But we spent all afternoon in bed. How can you still be going on about this?”

“I’m not going on about it.”

“You are.”

We fall silent again. He’s right, I know I need to let this go. But for some reason, I can’t control it.

“I don’t like you there without me, feeling like this.”