“When he talks about you it just makes me so mad. It’s always Penny this or Penny that. I know you guys are friends. I know you guys talk and hang out all the time. I just… I don’t know how to deal with it, knowing that you’ve been more than friends in the past.” She sighed and sat down on the edge of Tyler’s bed. The only time I had even been in here was when I had helped him move in. I wasn’t interested in sharing a bed with Tyler. I never thought about him like that. He really was just a friend. And I didn’t want to be what stood in the way of Tyler and Melissa being happy. I had already done that enough to Tyler. Maybe I should just step back. What it came down to was that Melissa never believed that boys and girls could just be friends. It didn’t matter that I had proof with Mason, Matt, and Rob; she’d never understand.
“If you want, I’ll give you both some space to figure this thing out. I don’t want to be the reason why you guys break up.”
“We can’t break up. We’re not even officially dating.”
“You know what I mean. I came over tonight to talk to you guys about this. I didn’t want to be kept in the dark. But I realize why you didn’t want to talk about it.” I grabbed a pair of yoga pants out of the box that Melissa had been packing and pulled them on. “I shouldn’t have butted in. But I missed you. I thought when you moved here we’d be hanging out all the time.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” She was looking down at her lap instead of at me. “I just need some time.”
I didn’t want her to be mad at me. I wanted to be able to say that she could have as much time as she needed. But I couldn’t help but think that my wedding was in less than two weeks and I needed her. “I hope that you two can work it out.”
She didn’t say anything as I left the room. I closed the door behind me. I didn’t even want to make eye contact with Tyler. Melissa had been yelling. He had already heard the whole conversation.
“I’m just going to go. You should probably go talk to her.”
“Penny.” He stood up and walked toward me. “You don’t have to go.”
“I think maybe you do have to choose,” I whispered. I didn’t want Melissa to overhear me. “At least for awhile. If you want to be with her, then she has to come first. You have to tell her how you really feel.”
“I feel like she’s a lot for me to handle.” He gave me a small smile.
“Yeah, she is. And I’m pretty sure you knew that going into it.”
He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about all this.”
“There’s nothing to apologize about. I hope that you two can work it out,” I said, repeating the same thing I had said to Melissa. I grabbed my shoes off the ground and left as quickly as I could. When I closed the door behind me, it felt so final. Melissa and Tyler were the last parts of my old life I was holding on to. I didn’t want to lose them too. But it wasn’t my choice.
Tuesday
I wasn’t sure when James would be back. He had probably thought I’d be spending most of the evening at Tyler and Melissa’s. I flipped through the channels until I found a rerun of New Girl. The T. V. seemed to echo in the empty apartment. Melissa and I always used to watch this show together. I pulled a blanket onto my lap and tried to focus on the T. V. instead of my nagging thoughts. In the show, Winston was currently pulling a prank that was much too small. I had just gotten into the episode when the door to the apartment opened.
“Hey, baby,” James said. He tossed his keys on the kitchen counter and draped his suit jacket over the back of one of the chairs.
“Hey,” I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him as he walked toward me. “Did you have a good night?”
He lay down on the couch and put his head on my lap. “Yeah. What are we watching?” Instead of looking at the T. V., he was looking up at me.
I ran my fingers through his hair. “New Girl.” James was horrible at watching T. V. It was like he didn’t have the attention span for it. Which was strange because he could focus on other things for hours or even days. I knew he hadn’t watched much T. V. growing up, so maybe he just never got used to it. Even though I wanted to see Winston’s reaction to his prank going horribly wrong, I grabbed the remote to turn it off.
“No, I want to watch,” James said and turned his face toward the T. V.
I looked over my shoulder toward the door. He hadn’t brought any bags in or anything. He had said he had errands to run. Where had he been if he didn’t bring anything back with him? “What were you up to tonight?”
“I just had some errands to run.” He kept his eyes glued to the T. V. When the show went to commercial, he turned back toward me. “Was I right about Tyler and Melissa?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Melissa wants me to stay away for awhile so they can figure things out.”
“Why?”
“She’s uncomfortable with my friendship with Tyler. It’s stupid.”
“Were you wearing this?” He lifted up the bottom of Tyler’s old shirt.
“Yes.” I shrugged my shoulders. That was the exact thing that had bothered Melissa.
He laughed. “You two do have a weird relationship.”
“We do not.”
“I’m not complaining. But I can see how it might make her uncomfortable.”
I frowned. “Does it make you uncomfortable?”
“I’m confident in our relationship. Melissa and Tyler just started dating, so she’s not confident in their relationship yet. Just different circumstances.”
“But does it make you uncomfortable?”