Page 59 of Back for Seconds
I turned on Joey. “Why are you buying thirteen ounces of Vaseline—” I dropped my voice to a barely audible whisper. “Seven thousand condoms and a tube of Icy Hot?”
Joey pressed his lips together, directing a blank stare at the ceiling. “Why do you think, data scientist?”
“Shhhhh! There are eyes everywhere.” I swatted a hand at his chest before shooting a hasty glance up and down the narrow aisle. The coast was clear. “She’s going to tell everyone we have a hostage-crisis-bondage kink. That I make you zip tie me to a radiator and act like you’re on the phone with David Boreanaz.”
“You’re shushing me?” Joey threw a darting look over his shoulder. “About half of St. Agnes’s parish just heard you shout the words bondage kink. Jesus—” He pulled a hand down his face. “I gotta get out of here.”
“Whoa, wait.” I shook my head. “Are you mad at me?”
“Mad at you? No, I just…” He pushed a hand into his hair, eyes fluttering shut. I’d never seen Joey like this before.
“Hey,” I said gently. “I was just kidding, no one’s going to think that.”
“Maybe,” he managed, setting his basket on the ground. “Maybe not. I’ll see you around.” He zipped up his jacket and began stalking away from me—toward the exit.
“Wait…hold on!” I picked up Joey’s basket and scurried behind him, weaving in and out of the crowded, narrow aisles. “What happened? Joey! Stop ignoring me!”
“Not ignoring you,” he called over his shoulder. “Ignoring everyone.”
“You can’t do that! You’re a…a social butterfly!”
He eased his broad body around some women lingering near the exit. “Clip my wings, Junebug.”
“But it’s Christmas!” I shouted after him, before adding, “Being surly is my thing!”
What was going on?
The market door banged shut with a jaunty clang of Christmas bells, and I dropped both of our baskets and followed him out into the street.
“Joey, wait.” I jogged to meet him, yanking my hood up to protect my ears from the sudden cold. “I’m worried,” I said breathlessly as I met him at his side. “You’re not yourself.”
“Ah, don’t be.” He grimaced against the wind. “This is what happens to positive mindset idiots like me eventually, right?”
“Don’t call yourself an idiot.” I grabbed at his jacket sleeve, pulling at him, urging him to slow down. “Now, tell me what happened.”
“Do you ever feel like your ex wasted your time?”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“Do you feel like he…he took the best years of your life?”
“That’s a ridiculous question.” A strange anger suddenly leaped in my chest. “Do I look like my best years are behind me or something? Do I seem like I’m…all used up?”
“What? No, not at all.” Joey shook his head. “It’s not like I think that. It’s something someone said…to me.”
“Why would they do that? I mean, he was my person, and now he’s not. And that’s just the way life goes. I don’t think it’s ever a waste of time to love someone, even if it is…super fucking messy. And painful.”
“You really mean that? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“Of course I mean it.” I reached for his jacket zipper, giving it a gentle tug. “I’m not in the business of stroking your ego, Pagano.”
Joey’s mouth twitched briefly into a small smile, before falling back into a frown. “I saw Amber yesterday.”
“Oh.” Was their relationship suddenly back on again? I folded my arms over my chest and tucked my chin into my sweater against the cold. “Ok.”
He blew out a breath, which turned into a white cloud, the rounded tip of his nose turning pink. He kept his eyes fixed over my shoulder, on the gray, milky sky and the darkened boardwalk. “I felt like everything between us was completely, totally finished. Her stuff was gone; she’d moved. Then, out of nowhere, she has to double back and open the door again—why?” He shook his head. “I was doing so well.”
I hated seeing him like this. I would have done anything to smooth the worry lines out of his forehead. I knocked my elbow into his. “Do you wanna talk about this? Like, really talk about it? Someplace warm, maybe?”
