Lily stared out the window as they drove through Norristown, her brow furrowed.
"Want to talk about it?" Scotty said after enduring twenty minutes of silence.
"Talk about what?"
"Whatever got you so preoccupied. If I had to guess it's about 6' 2", brown hair and currently at the DAs Office"
"What?... Kite?... Kite and I are over" she sat up and mustered her best look of disbelief. But she knew Scotty was too perceptive for that, especially when she saw his smirk.
"All I'm saying is that I was at the coffee shop this morning. You weren't exactly inviting that girl to sit down and join us."
Lily knew fighting with him was pointless. She had been upset about seeing Kite with another woman. And she knew how pathetic that was. They had broken up almost a year and a half ago, and yet she hadn't seriously dated anyone since. It seemed every guy she met fell short of Kite in some fashion. Not that she was romanticizing Kite. They had definitely had their problems and he wasn't perfect. She knew she wasn't always easy to deal either. The job took up a major part of her life, and she didn't easily share herself with people. She had simply been hurt too many times before. But he was different somehow. She had been starting to trust him. And for all her independence, she had enjoyed coming home to him. She had not expected the breakup, but once the shock wore off, she realized how hurt she was. But it upset her even more that she was still smarting from it. Lily hated feeling vulnerable, hated being controlled by anyone and he still had a hold over her. She looked over at Scotty, who just sat there with an expectant smile on his face.
"I don't know Scotty… He just... I miss him."
"Well have you tried telling him that?"
"Scotty, he broke up with me. Besides it's been a year and a half. Maybe he's not with her, but he's sure as hell hasn't been waiting for me."
"Lil, it's your call but I didn't see I'm-completely-over-you written on his face today."
There was nothing like opening a cold beer after a hard day. And today was definitely a hard day. In fact there had been a lot more of those days in the past year. Seeing Lily was always a little difficult for him, but having his sister there made it worse. Even though she had never met Lily, she had immediately liked her. Charlotte was a lot like Lily: stubborn, loyal, and practically married to her job. So when he told Charlotte that they had broken up, she told him it no uncertain terms what she thought of him.
He was being ridiculous. Lily was wonderful, and brought out the best in him. She had simply been comforting a guy who had lost the love of his life. So what if he had gotten her full attention that night? If he was that jealous, it was his problem. Had he ever heard of communication as a tool of solving relationship issues? For once in his life he was dating someone with a higher IQ than her cup size and he ran at the first sign of trouble.
He cringed just thinking of her words. For months she has started every conversation with "Are you two back together, yet?" Just recently he had come close to convincing her that she was over blowing the whole situation, but the little meeting in the coffee shop surely ended that. He wished Charlotte had just gotten the drinks, walked right past the table and gotten into the car like he had asked. But she was too smart for that. And the second they were in his car, he had got what was coming to him
"I always liked her for you. She seemed perfect – smart and tough, but giving and a little vulnerable too. But more than that, it was the way you talked about her. I could hear that she was different than every other girl. I could hear the sadness when you broke up. I want you to have someone and, selfishly, I wouldn't mind having a half decent sister-in-law. Yet you have done everything to convince me that my view of the two of you had no base in reality and was just wishful thinking. But seeing the two of you today, it's clear she not over you and you're so not over her. And you better believe I'm not going to drop this now. You're a damn fool if you let something so precious go to waste."
He had brushed it off with some snide comment, but he knew she was right on every count. But there was nothing he could do. Lily had never been that invested in him. He may have broken up with her, but she hadn't even wanted a relationship with him. He practically had to force her to go on a date or to commit to them. Besides they had only been serious for a month. One lousy month. He just had to move on. He was pathetic mooning over it. It's was over.
Looking at his bottle of beer he knew his excuses were hollow. He knew Lily would have brushed him off from the start if she wasn't interested. Their little dance had been fun for both of them and she had wanted to be couple as much as he had. He couldn't really explain why he had broken up with her. Perhaps he was scared, maybe jealous of the attention she paid to her job. But it didn't really matter because he knew it was his own fault he was alone tonight. But it was much easier to blame her.
He sat down on his couch and placed his head in his hands. Whenever he thought about Lily, he always ended up so torn up, so frustrated. He stood up quickly. Things couldn't go on like this. Grabbing his keys and jacket, he headed for an answer.