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“You’re right, she’s pretty cool. But she isn’t the same as you, Lizzie. You were engaged for two years. You wanted a husband and family.”

“That’s what I thought, too, but now that I have a chance to change the path, maybe it’s not what I want.”

“Okay, okay. So Joe is really not what you want?”

“No! I mean, yes. At a different time, maybe. He’s great, and we have amazing chemistry...”

“But the time isn’t right.”

“No. It couldn’t be worse.”

Bobby remains silent for a moment. When I glance at him, he looks like he’s weighing whether or not to tell me something. Finally, I hear him take a deep breath. He must’ve decided to go for it.

“Just so you know, Jake is dating,” he says.

I am so shocked I lose my grip on the stirring wheel, and the car swerves. “What? Who?”

“Mickey saw him with another woman. It’s a girl from where you two worked. Bethany, I think?”

“Bethany? Jake said she had buck teeth!”

“Not anymore, apparently.”

Bethany is actually a very attractive girl. Works in sales at the company where I was in accounting and Jake in marketing.

I should’ve known Jake was full of shit.

I don’t say anything else while I drive back to my place, and Bobby doesn’t volunteer any additional information.

I try to sort out what I am feeling. Am I jealous? Maybe I’m a little jealous. But mostly I’m pissed. And I feel stupid. Also ashamed for clearly having no idea how my former fiancé felt about anything, or anyone.

We arrive at my place and I park next to Bobby’s truck.

I turn off the engine and lean back in my seat. “The worst thing is I don’t understand what happened. I don’t know if I did something. I’m not even sad we broke up, I just wish I knew why. Because, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t believe he’s ever been really into me, not the way people are supposed to be into each other. And I feel I’ve always known it on some level. And it eats away at me, you know, that he didn’t really love me after seven years. He knew all about me and wished the whole time that I would be someone else. Someone different. Smarter. Thinner. Prettier.”

“Oh, Lizzie.” Bobby unbuckles his seat belt and leans over to give me a hug. “You’re the best sister a guy could wish for. You’re cool and pretty and smart and warm. You love your family and put them first even when most other people wouldn’t.”

“I’m fat and plain and uncool.”

“That’s not true. Jake is just an asshole.”

“It is true. I have a mirror.”

“What does Joe say? Does he make you feel fat and plain and uncool?”

“No.” I hang my head. “He doesn’t. He makes me feel ... like the hottest girl he’s ever seen.”

Bobby smiles. “I think the right person will always think you’re an absolute prize.”

“Joe isn’t the right person.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He looked pretty smitten.”

“He’s not the right person!” I push Bobby’s arms off me. His words are making me anxious, like I’m itching all over. “He likes me because I’m the first girl he got to fuck after being depressed for two years because his wife had left him.”

Bobby winces. “That is ... a lot of new information about Joe.”

“He only likes me because he doesn’t know me! And because he’s happy to get laid again. I’m a rebound for him, too.”