Page 39 of Vitamin Sea

S he had been contemplating what her ex-boyfriend had said; his words roiled around in her head the whole week. Jack, cognizant of what a tailspin Chloe must be experiencing, had tried hard to give her some space.

Space, however, wasn’t what Chloe wanted.

She had told Jack that Liam had asked her to go for dinner in the spirit of transparency.

Transparency, she had learned a long time ago, was key to any kind of relationship.

And a lack of it was what led to issues.

And although she didn’t know where things with Jack were headed, she was committed to being honest with him about everything.

He hadn’t asked what she and Liam had discussed during dinner and Chloe hadn’t found it in herself to tell him. She knew if the shoe was on the other foot, the last thing she would want was for someone to leave her hanging while they figured out their feelings.

And figuring out her feelings was exactly what she was trying to do.

It was quite the conundrum. One week ago, she would have said with 100 percent, absolute certainty that she would never be interested in her ex-boyfriend again. That nothing could or would ever make her want him back. That ship, she was certain, had sailed.

But that had been before Liam had done his apparent about-face and thrown her feelings into turmoil.

It was agonizing.

Of course, her group chat with Lala, Opal, and Alejandra had exploded when she texted to tell them about Liam’s unexpected appearance. Their opinions had been just as different as themselves.

Lala suggested she go to dinner at Nobu, order the most expensive things off the menu, including wine, and then tell him to go fuck himself at the end of the night.

Alejandra was in favour of not giving him the opportunity to even talk.

I don’t know, Chlo , she had written. He dumped you without warning, without the opportunity to even talk about things to try and fix whatever the problem was, and he moved on with his coworker so quickly that it’s insulting.

I’ll support you with whatever you choose to do, but if it was me, I wouldn’t give him the time of day.

Opal, on the other hand, encouraged her to meet up with him for dinner and hear him out. Sure, how he had treated her was dastardly, but people do make mistakes and sometimes they come to regret and rectify those mistakes.

When she had told her mom that Liam had reached out to her, her mom had talked her through her feelings and let her know that she was there for her no matter what.

In the end, Opal’s advice won out. And while there was a certain feeling of satisfaction she derived from hearing Liam apologize and beg her to get back together, there was also a twinge of regret.

If she hadn’t given him the time of day like Alejandra had suggested, she wouldn’t be in this predicament now. She would be blissfully unaware and happy with Jack and the way that things were progressing.

If she had shut Liam’s request down, would there ever have come a time where curiosity would have gotten the better of her and she would have wondered what it was that he had wanted to talk to her about?

She supposed the answer to that had been yes, which was why she had ultimately decided to meet him. And now that she had, she was more confused than ever.

He had checked in with her a couple of times that week like she had said he could. It was nothing heavy—all light conversation, supportive, and memes.

It was jarring when she found herself laughing out loud at work after opening up a meme he had sent her that was so dad-joke bad it was funny.

The realization that she could potentially fall back into things with Liam so easily scared her. And she knew that what she was doing wasn’t fair to Jack.

◆◆◆

“I don’t want to tell you what to do, Chlo,” Lala said seriously. “But holy hell, what a fucking predicament.”

It was six days after her dinner with Liam and her besties had assembled at her place to go over the latest development in her love life.

She had texted the group chat after her and Liam’s dinner, but she hadn’t gone into detail.

She had just sent them an S.O.S. message.

And then, realizing that they might interpret it as her being in danger, she followed it up with a short note letting them know she was in a major, but not life-threatening, predicament—that Liam had asked her to get back together.

She had sent it after 10 p.m., but their group chat exploded and a flurry of messages populated the chat well into the next day.

That bastard! Alejandra had written. Just when you’ve moved on, you were over him, and you’re happy, he comes crawling back into your life!

Opal, as supportive as ever, became the textual equivalent of Switzerland. Supportive of both parties but ultimately staying neutral. One thing she did tell Chloe to do, however, was to tell Jack.

In true Lala fashion, her friend encouraged her to agree to get back together with Liam, punish him and make him work hard to atone for his terrible behaviour, and then dump him in a humiliating fashion after he thought he was back in for good.

The advice of her friends had merit (okay, maybe not Lala’s idea of punishing Liam by making him buy her a G-Wagon), and Chloe felt as lost as ever.

It was only after a one-on-one meeting with Dasha that she really felt some clarity.

After going over her budget for the upcoming quarter and pitching a few travel features to her boss, their conversation turned personal.

When Chloe had arrived back from Costa Rica, she had been careful not to tell everyone, her friends and mom excluded, that she had met someone while she was away.

She knew how that usually went. Telling people that you had met someone special was akin to getting a love interest’s name tattooed on your body—it was one of the fastest ways to jinx things and send a potential relationship to a watery grave.

Goodness knew Chloe had seen enough of that with one of the junior interns at the office.

It seemed like every other week Alisha was meeting a special someone whom she thought she was going to marry.

When a colleague would ask her how her romance was going a couple of weeks later, she would scrunch up her face and announce that she was dating someone else.

Eventually, Strut staff learned to stop asking.

“How are things outside of work?” Dasha had inquired. “I must say, I know you were getting back on track before you went on your last assignment, but that trip seems to have really been beneficial for you.”

Chloe had beamed.

“But I have noticed the last few days you’ve looked a little stressed and sleep deprived,” she trained her piercing blue eyes onto Chloe’s. “Is everything okay?”

How did her boss have such a knack for reading people? Chloe wondered. She couldn’t imagine Dasha as a parent. Her poor kids wouldn’t be able to get anything past her.

“Everything is . . .,” Chloe searched her mind for the right words, “complicated.”

She briefly explained the predicament she was in, including the fact that she had met someone special when she was on her latest assignment.

When Chloe finished the story, which ended with her getting in an Uber after dinner with Liam and feeling incredibly confused, Dasha leaned back in her chair and said nothing.

A mild bout of anxiety overcame her as she waited for her boss to respond.

“What do you want to do about it?” Dasha asked bluntly.

Chloe thought for a good few seconds and realized she didn’t have an answer. She shook her head.

“I honestly don’t know,” she said quietly.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do,” Dasha said practically. She picked up the sparkling water she had on her desk and took a drink. “But let me tell you a little story.”

Chloe’s curiosity was piqued.

“A scorpion,” Dasha began, a serious look on her face, “asked a turtle for a lift across a river. The turtle was concerned but the scorpion assured him that he would be okay: why would I sting you? he said. It would kill us both. So,” Dasha continued, “the turtle agreed to give the scorpion a ride and halfway across the river the scorpion stung him.” Her boss fixed her with that piercing stare again.

“The turtle drowned, and the scorpion drowned along with him.”

“Do you know, Chloe, what the moral is of that story?”

Chloe thought for beat.

“Don’t trust a scorpion?”

Dasha tilted her head. “Don’t trust someone when they are, by their nature, untrustworthy.”

“Liam is the scorpion,” Chloe replied.

Her boss took a deep breath.

“When someone shows you who they are, when they show you what their nature is, believe them,” she advised.

“I said I won’t tell you what to do and I won’t.

I will just say that Liam has shown you who he is.

I would tread cautiously and really think about how he treated you and the months of misery he put you through.

Think about how he broke up with you, how you felt, and what he did in the aftermath,” she paused.

“Nothing is guaranteed in life. People do make mistakes, but people are who they are, and they rarely change. If it was me, I would think long and hard about that before you make any decisions, and I wouldn’t let daydreams of the future or of what could be cloud your thoughts and feelings.”

Chloe nodded and thanked her boss.

Once again, it was so strange to Chloe that her boss, whom she didn’t spend time with outside work, who she relied on for a pay cheque, was able to get to the root of the issue and provide her with the most valuable insight.

◆◆◆

Chloe’s friends were spread out in the living room, with she and Lala on the couch and Opal and Alejandra occupying the two accent chairs. A massive charcuterie board sat on the coffee table in front of them and deep house music played softly in the background.

“If you do decide to give things with Liam another go,” Opal counseled her, “you would need to have all the information.”

Alejandra nodded. “Agreed. You need to know everything. Every dirty little detail. How he moved on so quickly, if he was having an affair, why he broke up with you in such a bad way, what made him realize he made a mistake. Everything.”

They gossiped over drinks and snacks well into the night, and a good portion of it was about Chloe and the situation she was in. By the end of the night, she was exhausted, and her friends left just before 11 p.m. Which was far past her bedtime.

She would be spending the next day writing. She was on a deadline for her Costa Morpho article, and she hadn’t even started it.

Which was strange in a way because of the phenomenal time she had had there. She supposed her procrastination likely had something to do with her current situation.

The next morning, she brewed herself a cup of strong coffee and sat down at her laptop.

She stared at the screen for an hour, unsure of where to start, when a text message popped up on her phone from Jack.

Just checking in, Chlo , it read. I know you’re writing today—let me know if you want to grab dinner later x.

Not wanting to give in to distraction, she turned her phone so the screen faced the desk and, minutes later, a beep indicated she had another message.

She scrunched her face to the side and picked up the device.

I know I said I would give you space, but I wanted to see if I could take you for dinner tonight, Chlo. I’m committed to this. I want you back.

Liam.

She put her phone on silent and pushed it away. Then, she put her hands on the keyboard and started typing.

Two hours later she sat back and read over what she had written. It was a good start, she thought happily.

She picked up her phone and reread both Jack’s and Liam’s messages before she typed back.

I would love to.