Page 12 of Breakaway Heart
“No. It’s a movie, Randall. Fucking hell. The Notebook.”
“What’s that about? A book?”
“Sleepless In Seattle?”
“Not a big fan of Seattle. Or Oregon in general.”
“Seattle is in Washington, but okay. Romeo and Juliet?”
“Oh yeah! They die at the end.”
“Fair. That was a bad example.”
We eyed each other again, and I groaned. This was useless. But another thought came into my head, and I squinted at him before asking delicately, “Randall, have you ever been in love?”
“Er, I’ve been in love a LOT, actually. Hundreds of times.”
“Yeah. I think you’re mistaking love for fucking, Randall.”
“It’sBobby,” he hissed at me, before checking over his shoulder, “And I’ve been with a Brazilian women.”
“A Brazilian?”
“Yeah, it means, like, more than you can count to.”
“That is not what it mea… You know what, never mind! My point is that you don’t talk to people like that when you’re in love. And I don’t think you’ve been there.”
“Sure, it’s all like‘my fluffy wubby, you complete me, you have my heart forever’and that stuff.”
“You know, I actually think you really might be a lost cause, Rand… Sorry…Bobby.”
“Maybe if I had a proper chance, I could be better.”
Those blue eyes looked off to the side with more than ahint of sadness in them, perhaps wondering to himself if that was actually true.
“Sure.Fake it ‘til you make itand all that.”
“Hey, wait! That’s a great idea!”
I didn’t like or understand the sudden change of energy or the expression on Randall’s face. But I could sense that I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say next, as his eyes unexpectedly lit up with excitement.
“Yeah! What you’re saying is… You can help me!”
“Oh. Wait! No! No, no, no, Randall.”
“Yeah! I mean, it’s perfect. You’re here on your own, so am I. No one has to know. You can be like my… Love guru! Show me how to do it.”
“Jesus. No. Even this is beyond me.” But his shining eyes told me it would not be that easy to escape from his plan.
“You know, Lucy. Us both being in this town. Alone. Everything happens for a reason,” he said, leaning in and passing off the words as if they were a profound prophecy.
“Sure. And maybe that reason is, Randall, that you’re a monumental jerk, who should probably be in jail, and every woman on the planet should be given a restraining order from you.”
He even looked hurt for a second, but I wasn’t fooled this time. I’d seen enough on my TV screen over the past few weeks to know that this man didn’t have deep feelings like that. He was just another rich, entitled ass-hat that had no idea what it felt like to be the rest of us.
“Okay, sure, sure. I get it. It’s just… You seemed like a good person and, well, you tell it like it is.”
“Yeah, I am, and you’re not.”
