"My relationship with my girlfriend, Mary, isn't working anymore. I am starting to try to figure out why I am with her, why I can't let go of something that isn't going anywhere. She 'bores' me if I must use that word. And to make matters worse, she keeps hinting at marriage after I finish up ….and all that jazz." I was torn a little inside since I had begun to form a crush on him, but once I looked in his eyes and saw the turmoil there I could almost feel his pain and soreness inside of me.
"What can I do to help?" He turned his music off, and I sat down into his comfy beanbag while he sat on top of his desk stool.
"Before I ran into you this afternoon," He half smiles at the memory," I had been at my studio talking with a girl from my art class this summer. She is very attractive, I will give her that, but anyway Mary came walking in as I was giving her a hug. This girl, Julie, was extremely depressed over a fight she had with her boyfriend over seas. She is a new student and doesn't know many people so I was simply, honestly, trying to comfort her. Well, Mary thought otherwise, and then we fought. I almost don't care if we try to straighten things out......" He shook his head and looked down contemplatively.
"Maybe you need some time to yourself, and maybe you should have a long talk with her." He nodded.
"The sad thing is," he replied," is that I know what she will say. We have had this discussion before, …she is very insecure about how I feel, or use to feel, about her. She feels threatened too easily," I thought back on my own relationship with Herb, did I do that too? Sort of but I didn't feel that I was obsessive about it, "would you be willing to look at some of the things I have written about it, and also letters that she has written to me?"
I patted his hand that I was holding and said that it would be no problem as long as I could correct the grammar as I went along. He finally smiled and looked more relieved then when he had seen me in the tub.
A few days later when I was through with classes, I drove home, catching a turkey sub on the way. The house was empty except for Dree who was finishing her packing. I opened my door and fell in a pile of exhaustion onto my bed. When I sat up I noticed three letters on my desk. One from Herb, one from Isac (the ex I had left in Crates), and a note from Mark.
This surprised me. I hadn't heard from Isac since he had gone to California, and Herb was still in Europe somewhere. I had promised people I would write, but I decided to "forget" to do so. Mark always had funny notes so I read his last. I sat and began to read.