Aubrey R. Kline (deklined) wrote in mnhttnprjct, @ 2010-04-19 18:19:00 |
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Aubrey stirred her synthetic coffee. She had made her decision to break up with Max on Friday evening, but the longer she was waiting, the harder it was to actually gather the nerve and just spill it. She still didn't even know if she ought to exactly explain the situation with Cody or not. She didn't want to, but she wasn't sure it wouldn't just spill out in her nervousness. "Glad you're off vocal rest," she said, giving him a weak smile. "Yeah, me too," Max said, taking a sip of his South Carolina tea and smiling back at her. He noticed something was a little strange about Aubrey's demeanor tonight, but he couldn't put his finger on what. They hadn't been out in a while, so this was a nice change, right? "I bet you're enjoying your break." She took a sip of her coffee and then put her cup down. She knew that if she didn't put her cup down, she'd probably wind up playing with it until she spilled it. She took a deep breath. It was now or never. "So, Max." She looked down at the table. "Do you see this relationship actually going anywhere? I mean, honestly." "Oh." Max put down his cup as well. As he tried to think of what to say, he busied himself with fishing the teabag out, draining it and leaving it on the saucer. Did he see the relationship going anywhere? Max wanted to get married in the church someday, and he knew Aubrey didn't share that aspiration. She was fun to hang around with, easy to talk to. She was beautiful, but -- he always thought there should have been a spark, and he didn't have it with Aubrey, it was true. He never had it, it seemed like. "We have fun," he said, finally. She watched him carefully as he moved. And Aubrey was reminded of why she went out with Max in the first place. He was cute, and she had enjoyed spending time with him. But she didn't feel like they could really even talk about what they wanted in a relationship. She had always kind of felt like she couldn't really give him what he needed. They had fun, sure. But she had plenty of fun with friends. She wanted something more out of a romantic relationship. She really wanted to fall in love and get married and have kids. And her friends were right, when she really thought about what she wanted, being with Max didn't really seem to make sense. "We do," she said. "But is that enough?" She gave him another weak smile. "I don't know if it is enough for me." Max's first thought was to ask if this was about the sex thing, but deep down, he knew the answer. And it wasn't a conversation he wanted to have in a coffeeshop, anyway. His second thought was to point out that they hadn't been together for very long, but thinking back on it, their first date had been at least two months ago. He supposed that was enough time to judge. His third thought was that he agreed. He didn't know if what they had was enough for him either. "Maybe not," he said, looking down at his hands. "I mean, you're really great, Max. You're fun to be with. But I think that our relationship is more... Well, friendly." She really hated breaking up with guys. And the fact that Max hadn't done anything wrong in the relationship made it harder. "Yeah, maybe," Max said. He felt like he should be doing more than noncommittally agreeing with her, but he wasn't sure what else he could say. He wasn't even really sure how he felt about this. After a few more moments of looking at his hands (he really needed to cut his fingernails), he decided to lighten the mood with humor. "Maybe we're not right for each other. I mean, I know I'm nothing like the guys you dated in high school." She felt bad the more he simply agreed with her, so she was glad when he tried a little humor. "Yeah," she said. "Not quite. I have had a great time with you, I just feel like..." She lifted a hand in the air and then put her hands back on her coffee cup and took another sip. "I think maybe it's just time for us to admit that this really isn't going to wind up being anything permanent. And just move on." She took another sip. "Although I hope we can still be friends." "Yeah, friends." Realizing that he was just agreeing again, he added, "I'm not going to quit yoga class just because of this." With a pang, he realized the irony of breaking up so close to the gym where they had first met. They'd been to this cafe on dates a few times before. "Well, good," she said. "Because I'll still be going. Hopefully we can still work out next to each other." She reached over and took his hand and squeezed it. "I'm glad this is ending well, at least." She already felt like a weight was off her shoulders. Max squeezed her hand back. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to lose you as a friend," he said. But he wasn't sure how he really felt about it. "Okay," she said, pulling her hand back. Usually it didn't work when she tried to stay friends with an ex, but she hoped that this would be different with him. She leaned back in her chair, letting the awkward silence surround them. |