Page 92 of The Hearts We've Broken
“I’m not much better,” I grumbled. “I was using him, too.”
“You know, I was really skeptical of you guys at first.”
I glared at her, but she scolded me, pointing out that she wasn’t finished.
“I was skeptical at first, but the more I saw you two together, the more it made sense. He’s not the type of guy I would have pictured you with, but it worked. I had no idea it was fake, and clearly neither did anyone else. Either you guys were really good at acting, or it wasn’t really pretend.”
“It became real to me.” I had put a pillow over my face so my sentence came out muffled.
“Huh?”
I removed the pillow with a resigned sigh. “We had rules, and I broke the most important one. I told him that no matter what happened, we couldn’t get feelings involved. No feelings meant no one got hurt.And look what happened.”
Liv gave me a sympathetic smile. “Hearts don’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s fake, June.”
I shook my head. “It was all temporary anyway. It was never going to last.”
“If you say so. You just seemed really happy, and I hate to see you hurting.”
“I’ll be okay. I’ll, uh, see you at work later.” I waved her off.
Liv took the hint and pursed her lips into a soft smile as she stood to leave. Before she left the room, she turned over her shoulder. “We’re all here for you. You don’t have to go through anything alone, you know that, right?”
Her footsteps disappeared down the hallway and the front door opened and shut, temporarily leaving me in a blissful silence.
Nothing good ever lasted, though, and my phone buzzed on the bedside table. At first I didn’t pick it up, butmy curiosity got the better of me and I rolled onto my side, letting the lock screen light up.
I blinked a few times, wondering if my brain was processing what I was seeing correctly.
Right in front of me was an email notification requesting an interview for the job in Minnesota.
Holy shit.
I skimmed the email, rereading the first few lines just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.
Thank you so much for submitting your application for the Research Assistant position. We’ve reviewed your resume and cover letter and are very impressed by your background. We would love to set up an interview so we can tell you about the position and learn more about you.
After checking my schedule, I sent a reply with my availability, letting a squeak of excitement slip as I navigated to my messages.
You’ll never guess what
My heart lurched as I remembered that I couldn’t text him that. We were over. I deleted the text, opening a new thread with Natalie instead. I’d have to talk to her eventually, and this felt like a better conversation starter than Mikey would be.
Sorry I’ve been MIA.
I have a job interview
Natalie
That’s amazing! For the job in Minnesota?
Yep, I ended up applying the day we talked about it.
Natalie
How do you feel about it?
Nervous but I think it’ll be a good change
