Break Down: Part Two

As I recovered from nearly choking on my pizza, I managed to say hello back to Mike. I don't know what I expected when I texted him but seeing him in person felt, well, strange. His smile was brighter than I remembered and it looked like he had put on some muscle since I last saw him.

"How are you?" I enthusiastically asked as I stood up and gave him a somewhat awkward hug. You know those hugs that you give to people you haven't seen in forever but you were really close with?

"I've been good. Better than you, it seems," Mike replied as we pulled away. I almost stepped into my defensive pants until I realized he was referring to my flat tire.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, it's been a sucky day."

Mike squinted at me. "Caroline," he began. "Have you been crying?"

I instinctually wiped at my eyes. "No, what are you talking about?"I didn't want to lie to Mike, but I was embarrassed at how emotional I had gotten over something so routine as a flat tire.

Mike looked down and laughed. "Whatever you say. So how's the pizza here?"

I titled my head at him. "You haven't eaten here?"

Mike smiled and shook his head. "I know, I live so close, but this place has only been around for about six months."

I nodded. "Well, my slice has been pretty good." He looked down at my half eaten, falling apart slice, before telling me he was going to grab one himself.

While he was at the counter, I began nervously chewing on my lip. This felt weird. And more than weird, I felt bad. I mean, if Scott were having pizza with his ex-girlfriend, I wouldn't be happy. But nothing was going to happen. Plus, Scott made it very clear that he wasn't the jealous type, so I'm sure he would think this was no big deal.

Mike returned with his slice. "So how the hell are things? I haven't seen you in months!"

I looked down at the table, feeling a sense of unease looking right into his eyes. Should I tell him now that I had a boyfriend? I didn't want to start with that but I also didn't want to lead him on. There was no way he thought this meeting meant I wanted to get back together, right? I mean, he could have just as easily been seeing someone new also.

"Things are good," I casually responded. "What about you? Are you done with school?"

"Yeah, starting a new job soon, actually," he confidently answered.

My eyes widened. "Where?"

Mike proceeded to tell me about this recruiting office that he interviewed for a couple weeks before. They had called him a few days ago and he was working out a start date with them. "How's school going with you?"

I told him I was graduating soon and definitely looking forward to it. He laughed at my response. "What?" I defensively asked.

Mike shrugged. "No, I'm sorry. It's just, you stress so much about school. I don't know what you're going to do without it."

I rolled my eyes again. "Just because you never cared about school doesn't mean that I 'stress' too much over it," I retaliated. "Besides, I'll have my master's degree. I think that's enough for right now." I was a little worried about entering the job market at 24 with nothing but an office manager job on my resume, but now that Mike was going to be recruiting maybe I could use him to my advantage?

Mike put up his hands. "Hey, I got by. Ds get degrees."

I took a sip of my soda to hide the smile on my face. I forgot how easy it was to talk to Mike about things, not that it wasn't easy to talk to Scott. Mike and I were just together for so long. Am I the only one who finds it weird that we break up with people and then never talk to them again? Even when there was a real friendship underneath the romantic relationship?

"So?" Mike began again. "What else is new with you?" He looked at me with soft eyes.


"Um, nothing really," I began, trying to diffuse what I was about to say. "I, um, actually have a boyfriend now." I looked at him, eager to know his reaction and I can't really explain why.

He looked away from me. Now he looked slightly uneasy. After what felt like forever, but was actually three seconds, Mike responded. "Well, that's awesome. I bet he's not as cool as me, though." He looked up at me and I his smile had returned.

I laughed. "How can anyone compete?" After a few seconds where we each took bites of our food, I did the polite thing and asked him if he was seeing anyone, hoping that I'd be prepared for the answer.

He exhaled a breathe. "Kind of," he responded. "I mean, it's still new, but yeah."

I nodded. Even though I was happy with Scott, there was still a small part of me that felt a ding of jealousy that Mike was seeing someone new. But this quickly passed as I realized how surprisingly nice this encounter was going. Here I was, sometimes dramatic Caroline, having lunch with an ex-boyfriend where we could both discuss our new relationships. I figured that admitting to each other that we had seen new people naked on a regular basis was good enough for one afternoon.

We spent about another ten minutes catching up before my brother called me saying he was close by. I told Mike and got up to give him a hug goodbye. "Thank you so much for keeping me company!" I exclaimed.

"Anytime, Caroline. You know I'm always here for you." Mike reached and gave me a hug. "We should keep in touch."

I smiled and agreed. Who know? Maybe keeping in touch will be nice.