Eric Part 3

Happy Tuesday everyone! And time for part 3 of the Eric saga. Click here for part 1 and part 2.

(When I started Tuesday's Bad Dates, I didn't think I'd be so long winded. I promise I'll try to reign it in for future posts)

ANYWAY.....


Later, as the night was winding down, I was once again sitting by the rail, looking over the water. I was nursing a diet coke and wondering how long I should let Katie and her boyfriend argue before I insisted that she get in the car so we could go home. Eric sat down across the table from me.

“Hey loser!” he said.

“Hey loser yourself.”

“So, hey, thanks. You know, for what you said earlier. When everyone else was cheering?”

“Sure” I said. “It seemed like a strange thing to be cheering about.”

“Well, things got kind of ugly for a while. And it’s good that the fighting is over. But I never thought I’d be divorced.”

“Of course," I said. "Nobody gets married believing they’ll get divorced. A lot of people do, though. It doesn't make you a bad person. It just makes you human."

“Have you ever been married?” he asked.

“Nope.”

“Any particular reason?” he asked.

I was about to give one of the sarcastic, pat answers that I reserved for such questions: “I haven’t found anyone who can keep up with me” or “I guess I’m too smart.” Instead, I looked up and confessed a truth that until now, I had only verbalized to J and Isabella.

“I thought I’d be married by now. I had it all figured out. But then he decided that I wasn’t worth it. He thought he could do better somewhere else.”

Eric held up his beer: “Stupid guy.”

“Yup.” I held up my diet coke. “And your ex; I guess stupid girl for not wanting to work things out with you.”

"She IS stupid!"Eric exclaimed. Then he groaned. “Oh, I just want this day to be OVER!”

I looked at the clock: 12:45. “It IS over. The day you got divorced is over. Now it’s officially the first day of your new life. Loser.”

He smiled. “Thank God!" He sipped his beer. "You want to get dinner or something sometime? Loser?”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

“Ok!” Eric held up his drink again. “To us, for no longer being losers. And to the losers who dumped us: may they grow a brain or two.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

He was on a roll now: "To Eric and..." he looked at me expectantly

"Heather"

"To Eric and Heather! And to hell with... what's your ex's name?"

I smiled uncomfortably. "His name was, well, Eric."

Eric's face fell.

"Why? What's your ex-wife's name?"

"Heather."

You could physically feel the air between us shift. We finished our drinks in silence, each looking out over the water. Eric got up to go to the bathroom. I went to find Katie and drive home.

Since then, Katie and the singer have broken up. We still go see the band, just not as often. He calls me "little Jeep girl" I call him "guitar boy". Sometimes we call each other "Loser".

Some things were not meant to be.