I purposely remained seated until then, to keep my distance from them and ensure I was the last to exit. Until Joe spoiled that.
“Actually, I’d like to talk to Lucy before I go. Alone.”
Really, Joe? Now you wanted to talk? Here?
“She’s all yours.” Sam turned on his heels and didn’t glance at me once as he exited the room.
Oh, dear. I was all nervous again. It was like a heavy weight was suddenly dropped from ten storeys straight onto my chest.
This wasn’t how I imagined my talk with Joe. We were supposed to be sitting on the sofa with a nice cup of coffee and we’d go through this calmly. That was my plan. Definitely wasn’t supposed to happen in full display in this glass conference room. Definitely not in front of people who thought Joe was my boyfriend. Including Sam.
At least, I hope this was aboutthattalk.
Joe paced back and forth for a few seconds before dropping the bomb. “Luc, we should end things.”
Definitely not how I thought we’d start our talk either.
I tried to form an answer but I was seemingly speechless.
Joe stepped forward to meet me. “We’re going to be working together very closely now and we both know how important our individual job is for each other. I don’t think we should risk complicating this project.”
“So you’re breaking up with me because of work?”
“That sounds wrong, doesn’t it? We can’t break up if we’re not together.”
Oh,thatwas the part that sounded wrong to him. Not the part that we couldn’t work together. Or the reference to it being a risk.
“It’s not just about this project.” Joe took one of my hands in his. “Sex ruined us. We’re not like we used to be. We’ve crossed the friendzone and we’ve changed. You see that too, right?”
Finally. He said something. His indifference had always given me the impression he was oblivious to us. But now I got it. He knew we were in shambles and instead of facing it – facingus, he hid in his office to evade this talk.
“Yes, I see that too.” I replied with a big honest smile.
“It’s like we’re in a dark alley…”
“… yea, with no light ahead of us.”
“I know, right?”
“Exactly.”
“So we agree then? It’s over. No more sex.”
“In the past. Or better, we can pretend it never happened.”
“Agreed. We should start a clean slate.”
“Like starting over?”
“Yes, just like that. Just friends.”
“Definitely. Just friends.”
Joe smiled at me. That sweet smile of his that I hadn’t seen in so long. He released his hold on me. Literally and somewhat figuratively. “Good talk, Luc.” And with that, he left the room.
I remained standing there like a statue, unmoving, still processing what just happened. Why was I not feeling any sense of relief? I wanted this talk with Joe and agreeing to be just friends was the exact outcome I could have hoped for from our talk. Why did it feel like…
“Hey.”