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His eyes find hers across the room as soon as he crosses the threshold.
The gesture is effortless, second nature even, but it's quick, and there is definitely cause for how he then shifts his focus to their mutual friends as if the brief moment between them had never happened.
Eddie and Patricia just aren't in love anymore.
Haven't been for a long time now.
She feels the gaze of everyone else fall onto her the moment he turns away, but it's only her imagination at work this time. No one else had noticed the room stilling for those few seconds and the pity party she had never asked for nor quite gotten used to had been long gone now too.
Instead, she's left all alone to absorb the reality that she's about to be face to face with him and she's ashamed to say she's drowning. Because she's not come within ten feet of him but she can still smell the way his body wash mixes with his leather and it sets off a chain reaction she hasn't felt since the day he went off to university. It still feels as if she is meant to walk over to him, regardless of what has transpired throughout the years, and he would still meet her with warm arms around her waist and an ornery smirk against her ear.
Eddie laughs out loud at something that is said in the distant conversations now taking place and it startles her out of her spiraling and she nearly stumbles off the heels of her boots.
It's not supposed to happen this way every time they show up at the same gathering. She doesn't even want to get back together and she still can't help but to selfishly hope she still catches him off guard too.
Patricia collects herself as quickly as she falls apart because that's just the way it needs to be. She takes another look at him, a clearer look, pausing at the gold ring around his finger… It's the first time she's actually seen it in person and it stings only for a second. Nothing nearly as bad as what she'd imagined it would be. It really, really suits him if she's honest and she almost smiles out of fondness… Almost.
She doesn't actually hate his wife, not even after the invitation incident…she never has. And that's why she decides she will direct most of the conversation to her as she smooths her hair and dress and makes her way toward them.
The side hug she's met with immediately feels awkward and belittling given their history and she wants to scream when he does that thing with his hand against her back because honestly, how dare he. Why here, why now, why again?
In her peripheral vision she can tell Eddie is anxious to speak to her but she ignores him as she listens to the Mrs. with her best smile and attentiveness. She's almost too afraid to look at him because the longer she stands in front of them, the more she feels like she's on fire. They're not just three people catching up anymore...Patricia is a me and they are a them. They are a unit. They're married.
Her mind wonders as Eddie's wife speaks and she hopes it makes him squirm to see them together seemingly getting along so well and she immediately regrets the petty thought.
He finally gets a word in and his smile is too much for her because it's the same old smile but it holds a whole different meaning now that she's seen it make his wife smile too. It's definitely too much when Patricia is the only one of the two he's focusing on in the conversation. Every thing about it feels wrong because she doesn't belong here with them when she's feeling all of these things.
Patricia smiles back at them and she knows Eddie can tell it's fake but she doesn't care anymore, it doesn't matter anymore. Maybe she does hate his wife after all she decides, even as she's hugging her farewell and excusing herself to say hello to some of the others.
Eddie doesn't seem like he knows what he should do because fixing Patricia's feelings isn't his job anymore even if he still wants it to be and he knows it so she initiates the awkward meaningless side hug for him. It's just a polite formality anyway, it's just what people do when they haven't seen each other in years. As they pull away she makes a point to look him in the eyes before she says anything to him.
"Goodbye, Eddie."
This is the third time it's been said, the second time she's really meant it and Patricia is determined to make it stick this time. They don't need to try to be friends, they can't be friends. Because even if he can forget, she definitely can't. And she's too stubborn to let this type of catch up happen again.
"See ya…Yacker."
A/N: Been sitting on this one for almost 2 years too. It kinda goes along with Stubborn Hearts but not really, it doesn't have to. So if you said you wanted that to continue and I said no you don't, lol here it is. My inspiration for these doesn't involve the couple getting back together.