Page 58 of Like First Love, Again

They sat like that for a while, two people who had once loved each other. Who were ready to let go after a long-delayed postmortem.

“I really don’t mean to bombard you with all this stuff,” Eric said, words coming more easily. “But I’m assuming you’re going back to work soon and I don’t want you to be blindsided. It wasn’t my idea to make anything public, but?—”

“Eric, I think you said the beginning of that in your head.” She tried to smile, even though all she wanted to do was sign the divorce papers and crawl into bed.

“Yeah.” He blushed and scratched the back of his head.

From the sheepish look on his easy-to-read face, Mia guessed what he wasn’t saying. She picked up a throw pillow and tossed it at him playfully.

“Do you have someone?” Her nervous system was over the peaks and valleys and she laughed too loudly.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen.” He paled, Adam’s apple bobbing.

For a second, Mia waited for the pang—jealousy, regret, something. But it didn’t come. Instead, an unexpected calm bloomed in her chest, soft and steady. She cared that he was seeing someone, but only because she was happy for him.

“Spill,” she demanded.

When he was sure that Mia really wanted to know, Eric cautiously disclosed that he’d been dating an orthopedic surgeon for the last few months. He hadn’t intended to meet anyone, but they’d gotten stuck together in an elevator and couldn’t stop talking. The longer Eric talked about her, the more the light returned to his face, his eyes, his smile. It was a light Mia hadn’t seen in so long, she’d forgotten to miss it.

But the elevator.

“No one meets like that,” Mia said, laughing so hard she snorted, her hand flying to her mouth. “She sounds pretty great,” she quickly added, still grinning as she put her hand over his.

“Is that, like, your blessing?” Eric’s question was hesitant, like Mia might be luring him into a trap.

“Not that you need it, but yeah, I guess it is,” she agreed. “You’re an amazing human and you deserve more than anything to be happy. Life is so damn short, take what you can while you can.”

Eric leaned back, shoulders relaxed. “Areyouseeing someone?”

Mia bought herself a few seconds to figure out how to respond. “Why are you asking?”

He chuckled, and it was nice to see his smile lines again. “You just seem different.” He tipped his head to one side as if to observe her from a different angle. “Good different,” he diagnosed.

Flooded with nerves at the thought of Tori, Mia’s flushed face answered before she could.

Eric replied with a bark of laughter. “Holy shit! You are!”

“Settle down.” Mia couldn’t control her grin.

“Anyone I know?” He wiggled his brows. “Ravi from oncology has always had such an obvious thing for you.”

“It’s no one from work,” she said because she was a wuss who couldn’t just spit out the truth.

Eric was even more amused. “Oh my God. Did you download a dating app? Were you terrified?”

“Jesus, no.” Mia picked at the metaphorical sticky bandage and ripped that sucker off with force, hair and skin and all. “It’s someone from Miami. Someone from school.”

Eric’s smile lines disappeared, only to be replaced by the elevens on his forehead. “From your all-girl’s school?” Then alopsided grin. “Tori?” He chuckled, but less in delight and more in some kind of confirmation. “I always wondered.”

“Wondered what?” Mia snapped, surely even fucking Eric couldn’t have guessed that she and Tori had been more than friends. He’d never even met her!

“I actually kind of always expected you to come out to me as bi or pan, or something left of perfectly straight,” he continued, mostly to himself, without answering Mia’s question.

“What the hell does that mean?” Mia was shrieking, but her heart was too busy racing and her brain too busy making sense of all the things Eric wasn’t saying aloud for her to regulate her pitch and volume.

“It’s not like it’s a bad thing.” Eric lurched forward and took Mia’s hands again. “I’m so supportive of you no matter what?—”

“Eric, for fuck’s sake, just tell me why you think?—”

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