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Sierra hit play on the TV, and we kept watching while I told myself I was simply overthinking it.
They kept up with that line of questioning, and then there was a mention of a wedding, and in damn near slow motion, he said the thing.
“Me and Rori are just vibing. That’s it, that’s all.”
Now, in his defense, “just vibing” was absolutely what we said we were doing. It was the consistent characterization we’d given what was going on between us to the point of running it into the ground.
And yet, when I heard it come out of his mouth, it sounded so... minimizing.
Me and Rori are just vibing. That’s it, that’s all.
Ouch.
I looked at Sierra, and she looked at me.
“I’ll see if Kev has any teammates.”
I didn’t take Sierra up on her offer to stay overnight.
I needed to be alone with my thoughts.
And I needed to be a big girl about handling my feelings, specifically with not allowing myself to devolve into some sort of unnecessary sadness.
There was nothing to be sad about.
All Tatum had done was reinforce what we had already established.
We were just vibing.
That was it.
That was all.
What was there to be sad about?
Clearly though, he wasn’t pleased either with the way the interview had come across, because he had been blowing me up since it aired, and I hadn’t been answering.
Not to punish him, but to gather myself.
But when he sent a text saying, Hey, we’re not doing this again, are we? that was when I understood that I was not going to be able to successfully put the conversation off.
So when my phone lit up with another call from him, this time I answered.
“You’re mad at me,” he said as soon as we were connected on the call, framing it as a matter-of-fact statement instead of a question.
“No,” I said, not bothering to camouflage my annoyance over the assumption. “Why would I be mad?”
“Because maybe you feel like I’ve minimized our relationship.”
Damn.
Down to the exact word, really?
“No,” I lied.
But only because my logical self knew the truth of that statement.
He wasn’t minimizing.