Page 53 of Curious
This woman caused me so much heartache. So much embarrassment. Cost me so much money.
And as I look at her, her long hair drawn over her shoulder, I’m finding it hard to muster the energy to be pissed anymore, or even to care at all.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been pissed for so long.
“Small talk isn’t really going to work,” I say. “You called me here to talk. So talk.”
She snorts. “Always the same, Camden.”
I level her with a glare. So… maybe I am still upset.
“Okay, fine. What I did was shitty, and I feel so bad about it that I can’t move on from it.”
“I have.”
Leah nods. “Okay, yeah. I get that. And we need to talk about yourhusband. But with us, didn’t you feel it, too? How we weren’t clicking?”
“No. I thought it was just wedding stress.”
“Wedding stress, sure, but… if it was like that when we were planning the best day of our lives, what did it say about the worst?”
While I want to protest, I decide to shut my trap.
She keeps going. “It wasn’t that I woke up one day and fell out of love with you. But I woke up one day and realized I didn’t want to marry you. I didn’t want to be with you my entire life. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to tell you that before, well, the ceremony. But I don’t regret the choice.”
Well, if that isn’t a kick in the dick. “Thanks.”
“No, it’s not you, and it’s not me. We just weren’t right together. Sometimes being together—the fact that we had history—isn’t enough to mean you should stay together. Don’t you think?”
I suppose she has a point. And I have the feeling that I dodged a bullet. Even though what she’s saying hurts my pride at some level, I know I deserve better than someone who doesn’t want to be with me.
I deserve someone like Shelby.
Leah sighs. “Also, if you got married so fast, and to a guy, maybe there were things that you weren’t acknowledging, too. You know?”
While I want to deny it, she’s right. I shrug. “Maybe. It was still a damned expensive wake-up call.”
She has the decency to cringe. “Yeah. I know. Guess that’s the other part of what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to pay you back for what we spent. I have a little saved that I can send to you.”
I stare at her. The prideful part of me wants to tell her I can handle it, but that seems like I’d just be hurting myself. Or hurting myselfmore. Finally, I give her a curt nod. “Yeah, okay. Whatever you want to contribute, I’ll accept.”
This conversation isn’t turning out to be the most comfortable one of my life, but it’s also not the worst. And I’m realizing that I’m over her. I’m glad that we’re not married, and I don’t want to think about her ever again.
We keep talking, and she tells me about her fiancé and what they meant to each other in high school. I knew some of this, and I don’t particularly care about the rest. But her ending up with him has some poetry.
“You and I weren’t meant to be,” I finally say. “You’re right.”
“So do you want to come to the wedding?” Leah gives me a wry grin. “I guess I thought that all those people I embarrassed us in front of might feel better if they see that we’ve both moved on and are in better places.”
“Do we really need that?” I ask.
She pauses and looks off to the side, then turns back to me and shakes her head. “Maybe not. Maybe all I needed was to talk with you.”
I let out a breath. Dodged another bullet.
Leah points at my foot. “So, what happened here?”
I choke on my coffee. “I, uh, hurt it. That’s a long story.”
