Right Into Place

Twenty-Nine

"What could possibly be the reason for traffic?" I asked, looking over to her since she knows about these things far better than I do.

"Ten minutes into the drive and you're complaining about the traffic. This is New York, Harry. What are you expecting? Empty country roads you can walk through town?"

My eyebrows met immediately and because I never told her anything about country roads and such.

"What?" She asked.

"I didn't tell you anything about empty country roads," I said.

"You didn't," she replied. "Why? Is there something wrong with--"

"I was in an empty country road. I was there during the weekend. I walked from there to town."

Her eyes widened like she don't even know what I'm talking about. "Wow! Really?! I was just -- I wasn't really thinking of anything remotely close to you, I just wanted to paint a contrasting picture."

"You've gotten it right, though."

"I didn't even know about it," she said and maybe it's just another idiotic move but I believed her. Suspicious as she was, I can't just assume things of the supernatural. "Can I ask you something?"

Seeing as we are in the middle of a packed road with nothing else to listen to but the muffled honking of horns, there is a lot of room for a conversation.

"How many ex girlfriends do you have?" She asked.

I cleared my throat. There was no way I could answer that easily. "Specifics," I said. "Serious ones? Every relationship, what?"

"Tell me the number of the whole relationships that you really had and the serious ones."

I sighed, counting inside my head. "At this rate, more or less twenty and serious ones," she looked at me expectantly when I hope she really wouldn't. She might just be disappointed. I licked my lips before answering, "Seven."

Her eyes widened. Her mouth fell agape as if she couldn't understand how that answer is actually the truth.

"God."

I waited patiently for a little more of her reactions because she had never disappointed me yet when it comes to that.

The silence shattered when she said, "Wow you're a heartbreaker."

I looked at her playfully, my lips a little too near to a smirk and one of my eyebrows raised. "So you think I am the one who breaks hearts rather than be heartbroken?"

I waited for her to take it back, but no, she didn't. Instead, she said, "I assumed because you said that for you, only seven were serious relationships."

"You're not wrong," I told her, bringing up a victorious smile on her lips.

"Okay if you don't mind me asking," she started and I have a feeling this is still a follow-up question from the subject before. "In those seven relationships, how many of them were the ones your girlfriends ended?"

Now, that's a good question.

"Five," I replied.

Her jaw dropped again, making her look absolutely surprised. "What?! Five girls broke up with you? Like by their own choice?"

I nodded, glancing at the road if there were signs of the traffic moving but so far, none so my attention snapped back to Taylor. She had the look of not-wanting-to-believe but she has to.

"Five girls, how long were they?" She asked.

"The first, one year," I answered, counting inside my head once more. "Second, about five months. Third, more or less two years. Fourth, eight months and the fifth, a month."