Page 103 of Pucking Matt
“But you are,” I argue. “Michelle?”
“We were hooking up. I wasn’t hooking up with anyone else at the time. Yeah, I started talking to Maddie and then there wassomeone before Michelle. I don’t date. I normally only hook up. Butself-growth.”
I flick up my eyebrows.
“What about you?” he asks. “When’s the last time you had a boyfriend? Was it that poor guy who came into the Grind Stone?”
I laugh. “I don’t have boyfriends. I told you before that I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve dated. I’m not a virgin, but…” I shrug.
“Nobody can handle you?” He nods, pursing his lips.
I chuckle. “Sure. Nobody can handle me. And I’m busy.”
“Not too busy for me.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “That’s because you won’t leave me alone, Matthew. Agh.”
He smiles. “I do appreciate you making time for this weekend. It’s saving my ass.”
“Why can’t you tell your mom that you and your ex broke up?”
He stalls for a second and then says, “Because she’s always said one thing to me during my childhood. She would tell me to take my girlfriends seriously. She told me that if I commit to one, I make sure she’s the one. And as you know, Michelle fucked that up for me.”
“How were you so sure that your ex was the one?” I question.
“I didn’t. I just finally met a girl I wanted to bangandget to know. Plus, her family are a bunch of hockey players. I figured I’d fit right in, and I did. I met her parents, and they approved. Her brother approved. Do you know Ryan Wilder?”
I shake my head and shrug.
“Hockey stuff,” he explains. “But I fucked that up.”
“Are you sad about it? Do you miss her?”
He’s already shaking his head. “No. I see her now and don’t feel anything.”
“Oh, that’s not what I was expecting you to say after saying you thought she might be the one.”
He shrugs. “It was two months. I guess in the moment, I thought I loved her. But I don’t know. It was weird how it ended. We liked each other. I begged for her back, but yeah, I got over it fairly quickly when I kept coming into the Grind Stone.”
“Matt…” I trail off.
“Matt,” someone shouts from behind him. His bedroom door opens as he swings around to look at them. “Wanna go grab a beer?”
“Nah, man. I’m good,” Matt says.
“Fuck, you sure?”
My view changes, so he must hold up the phone.
“Shit, sorry.”
“Have a good night. Call me if you need a DD!”
“Will do.”
“Sorry,” Matt says into the screen. “What were you going to say?”
I smile because he’s living a cute life right now. College, college friends, friends going out to get a beer, he’s an athlete, dating girls, roommates…he has it made right now. He’s living the classic American dream of early adulthood.
