Goodbye to the Love I Lost Eight Years Ago novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Table

At lunch Elliot calls their past an old mistake, Annie lies that her fiancé likes her thin, and Courtney offers to help her to the restroom.

Dale was waiting inside, in the pressed shirt, under a chandelier that cost more than his truck.

Elliot pushed my chair through the dining room, and Dale stood up so fast his napkin hit the floor.

"Hi, babe," he said.

He bent and kissed my cheek.

I put my hand on his wrist.

My ring slid sideways on my finger.

Elliot watched the ring.

"Dale," he said. "It's been a while."

"Eight years," Dale said. "You still look like you want to hit me."

"I'm a doctor now. We don't hit people."

"That's a relief," Dale said, and sat back down.

Courtney took the chair beside me and pulled it in so I was snug against the table.

She shook out my napkin and laid it across my lap.

"Is the light okay?" she asked. "I can ask them to dim it."

"It's fine. Thank you."

"I'm just so happy to finally meet you," she said.

She said it so warmly that I felt it in my chest.

The waiter came and Elliot ordered for himself without looking at the menu.

Courtney ordered a salad and a bread basket and laughed that the baby wanted both.

I asked for soup.

"Just soup?" Elliot said.

"I'm not very hungry."

He looked at me properly for the first time.

His eyes went over my collarbones, the shadows under my cheekbones, the way my cardigan hung off my shoulders.

"You're nothing but bones," he said.

"I've had surgery."

"You're still trying to diet?" The words came out sharp, and he seemed surprised at himself.

I smiled.

I had known he would ask something like that, and I had a lie ready.

"Dale likes me thin," I said.

Dale choked on his water.

"He, um," Dale said. "Yeah. Likes. Thin."

Elliot's jaw moved once.

"Then he's an idiot," he said.

"Elliot," Courtney said gently. "Babe."

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business."

"It isn't," I said.

The soup came.

My hands were shaking too hard to hold the spoon steady, and soup slopped over the rim.

Elliot started to reach for the napkin and stopped.

Courtney got there first.

She dabbed the table, then my sleeve, then took the spoon out of my fingers.

"Let me," she said.

She fed me two spoonfuls before I took it back.

"You're sweet," I told her.

"That's what I'm here for," she said, and squeezed my hand.

Dale was watching her with a small line between his eyebrows.

Elliot set down his water glass.

"Annie," he said. "I'd like to say something. Courtney knows, and I'd rather say it in front of both of you."

Dale's hand tightened on his knife.

"What happened between us was a long time ago," Elliot said.

"I was angry for a while, and I won't lie about that."

"But I've had eight years, and I've made peace with it."

"We were kids, and it was an old mistake, and I don't hold it against you."

He said it calmly, with no heat in it at all.

I sat very still.

For eight years I had begged the universe to make him stop loving me.

Now he had, and he was being kind about it, and it hurt more than the slap he had never given me.

"Thank you," I said. "That's generous."

"I mean it."

"I know you do."

Courtney pressed her palm to her heart.

"That's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say," she told him.

"I'm trying," he said, and looked back at me.

He looked for a long moment.

"Mom said your surgery was your last one," he said. "What was it for?"

"My hip."

"What stage was it?"

I had not expected a question that direct.

"I'd rather not talk about it at lunch."

"I'm a physician. I can..."

"I know what you are, Elliot."

It came out harder than I meant.

He sat back.

For a moment I saw how tired he was, and how long he had been tired.

Then I felt it low in my belly, the cramp that meant I needed the bathroom soon and could not do it alone.

The underwear I wore made me careful, and made me ashamed.

I slid my napkin onto the table.

"Excuse me," I said. "I need to..."

Dale half rose.

Courtney was faster.

"Oh, honey, let me take you," she said. "I'm good at this."

"I can do it myself."

"You can't wheel yourself in those tight stalls. I did my rotation in geriatrics. Please."

She stood and took the handles of my chair.

Elliot looked up at her with something like gratitude.

"Thanks, Court," he said.

"Anything for her," she said.

Dale said, "I'll come."

"Stay with Elliot," Courtney said sweetly. "Have a drink. This is girl stuff."

Dale stayed where he was.

I saw him watch us go.

Courtney pushed me past the host stand and down a narrow hall with a faded carpet.

She did not talk.

At the end of the hall was a single door with a small brass sign for women.

She opened it, rolled me in, and shut it behind us.

The click of the lock was very loud.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend