Tied Fate • ✓

16

Sh*t. Thomas forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. He stared hard at Regina, forcing an interesting, engaged look onto his face. He was an idiot. Since when have you ever tried to jump a woman like that?

...since when have you ever scouted out a woman, full-stop?

Thomas tried to play off his surprise. "Right, of course," he replied. "Your boyfriend."

"I mean, he was my boyfriend," she corrected, not meeting his eyes. Her gaze looked sullen and flat. "But he's not, anymore. Not really. I-It's complicated. We used to date... I, um... a long time ago I dated this guy. His name was Jandro." She paused for a moment to draw in a breath. "Two years ago, he got a job offer ... t-to play the bass in this band, uhh, I don't think you'll know it, but, it kind of took over his life." She paused again. Her eyes softened, "The last time I saw him was last year October."

Her story registered into Thomas's brain, and suddenly he understood.

"I see," he answered slowly. He turned to face her again. Her eyes painted a spectrum of a million emotions, none of them happy. "Is that  why you were crying?"

She started at this, "W-What?"

"I mean, I kind of figured.. you know you burst into tears back in the coffee shop, right?" He tried to let on a smile, to lighten the mood. "I, uhh... I don't know. I just kind of put two and two together."

She seemed disheartened by the mention of this. But, she didn't deny it.

"Yeah," she said. "That's why I was upset.."

She asked why he was upset today, and he told her: he'd lost his job. He was the editor's assistant at Pride Corp, and they'd fired him for the reason that they "just had to". Money business.

Regina looked amused, "No, but that's not fired."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You didn't get fired. You were let go. They had to let someone go, so they let you go."

He turned look at her, eyes scornful, "Yeah. But they didn't have to let me go. Not me, anyway."

"Well, who would you propose?"

"I can think of a few people."

She laughed. It sounded almost hysterical... and yet somehow lyrical. He found herself watching her.

"You're such a snob," she noted, then paused. "I don't know how I didn't guess that sooner."

"Wait..." He narrowed his eyes. "You're not still talking about what happened back at the Coffee Cup, are you?"

"I am."

He gasped a tireless laugh, "No, no. But, I apologised for that." His eyes were wide. She could not hold that against him. Not anymore...

Could she?