Page 14 - My FlipBook

Eric Walters

“Not always.”
“No, always. You always have somebody—and fast,” Ella
said.
“That almost sounds like an accusation.”
“Not an accusation as much as a fact. We’ve been friends
since the seventh grade. How many days were you without a
boyfriend or a boy you knew you could have as your boyfriend
anytime you wanted?”
I was going to say something, but again there was no point
in lying to somebody who knew all my secrets—even the ones
I didn’t know myself.
“That’s what you need to do differently this time,” Ella
said. “Stay without a boyfriend for a while. It would be good
for your soul.”
“You make it sound like a religious experience.”
“Maybe it is. Think of it as doing meditation or becoming
a Buddhist.”
“I think Buddhists can date.”
“There are hundreds of millions of them, so I assume they
do much more than just date,” Ella said. “But it would be a
real Zen experience for you to be single for a while. Don’t be
so desperate.”
“I’m not desperate.”
“It’s like you think people will think bad things about you
if you don’t have a boyfriend.”
“I didn’t know you thought I was that shallow,” I said.
“You’re one of the deepest people I know. In fact, your

problem is that you overthink everything. It’s no secret that
you have trouble being spontaneous.”
“So you think I’m too predictable.”

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