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“I’m twenty four and I can’t keep a guy committed to me for long,” she continues. “Last year I had a relationship with my married boss, and then I found out he lied to me. I thought he and his wife were separated, but obviously, that wasn’t the case. Long story short, he fired me when she found out about the affair.” She draws a long breath and shakes her head grimly. “Just so you know, I’m not a cheater. I really didn’t know. Now, I’m with someone I love, but he keeps telling me he isn’t ready for commitment.”

Leave out the married guy account, and her story sounds so much like mine. I don’t know what to tell her, so I keep quiet and wait for her to continue.

Sylvie grabs her cup, her hands clasping it. “It seems my life’s dominated by patterns that keep repeating themselves over and over again. No matter what I do, I can’t make it stop. So here I am in the hope to get the bad luck that’s been following me out of my system and finally settle down with someone who takes me seriously and wants the same thing.” Her gaze shoots up to me, and her gloomy expression instantly lifts. “What about you? Why are you here?”

“Pretty much the same. I’ve been single most of my life, not because I hate dating. It’s just hard to find the right guy.”

Sylvie giggles as she raises her cup to her lips and takes a sip. “Come on. What’s the real reason? I know you’re not in for being single. No one gets therapy for that.”

She doesn’t look like she’s going to drop the topic, and I’m not sure I want her to. Taking my sweet time, I take a sip of my tea and grimace at the bitter aftertaste it leaves in my mouth. “Well, there’s this guy.”

“I knew it,” she shouts with a little too much enthusiasm.

“It’s not really a secret.” I avert my gaze from Sylvie and peer out of the window. But instead of seeing the water and the beautiful backdrop of woods, it’s Bruce I see. “I think I was about five years old when I first realized that all I wanted was to get married. I want the white-picket-fence type of life. Have two kids. Grow old with someone who loves me. I know I’m not old enough to think that it’ll never happen, but recently all my friends from college seem to have started to settle down. Every day I go through my mail, I seem to see a wedding invitation popping up. And did I mention that my younger sister got engaged? I feel like such a failure.”

“Why?”

I bite my lip hard.

Why indeed?

“I don’t know,” I say slowly. “Maybe because my sister has it all. A kid, a house, a great boyfriend who will soon be her husband. For a while, I couldn’t stop the feeling that I was running out of time; that I’d never find someone to fall in love with. That’s when I met Bruce, and everything changed. We started to date, but then his family found out about us and he broke it off with me.” I turn my head back to Sylvie and meet her questioning frown. “His mother doesn’t like me.”

“Doesn’t surprise me at all. Protective moms can be like that.”

“Yeah. Except, she wants him to get back with his ex. His ex, who I’ll have to stress is rich. Her parents are friends with his, so it’s all perfect.”

“Well, she can’t force him, can she?”

I take a breath, pausing to calm the sudden tightness in my chest. “No, she can’t. But his mom is influential and has a real shot at being the next mayor.”

“So?”

“So compared to her and his family in general, I’m ordinary. You need to understand, his family has a long history of politicians that spans generations. It’s the reason we used to meet in secret in the first place. She wasn’t supposed to find out.”

“I still don’t see how that landed you in here.”

I nod slowly, understanding her confusion. “He never told anyone that we were dating, and I didn’t know. If I had, I wouldn’t have turned up at his parents’ house for a surprise visit on Valentine’s Day. His mom arrived early and thought I was an intruder. I tried to explain. I told her that we were dating. She called him, but he denied it.” I clear my throat to get rid of the lump that seems to cut off my air supply. “She thinks I’m someone he met in college who’s still crushing on him and has been following him around.”

“Wow.” Sylvie looks horrified. “What a coward.”

“He had a good reason for lying,” I defend him quickly. “You don’t know his family. They’re crazy controlling. His mom and his ex demanded that he request a restraining order against me.”

“So let me get this straight. You both were dating, and yet he requested a restraining order against you?” She sounds partly upset, which is understandable given that she doesn’t know Bruce.

I know how this makes me sound. Like a weak woman.

“They forced him.” My voice comes out low, choked.

“How do you know?”

“He told me.” I grab the spoon and start to stir the tea furiously until some of the liquid spills onto the table. “He’s apologized like a thousand times. He says he’s going to tell them when the time’s right.”

“What’s wrong with now?”

“Because like I said, his mom is running for mayor and—” Breaking off, I turn my head away, hit by the same train of hurt, confusion, and turmoil I just can’t seem to get rid of ever since that fateful day. “Officially, like whenever he’s mentioned in the papers, he’s still dating his ex. He told me he’d get that sorted out so I agreed to continue to see him. We met in secret. Unfortunately, his ex saw us and went straight to his mom, weaving a story about how I was still stalking Bruce. They filed another report and before I could even realize what was happening, I was told that I had broken my restraining order. But Bruce continued to want to meet up.” I meet her frown. “He said he needed me and I told him I would always be there for him. It went on for a few weeks. Until...he stopped replying to my texts.”

I fall silent.