I saw him standing by himself, nursing a beer. He looked just like I how I remembered him. He was alone but alert, terse but desperate for a conversation and an observant variety of shy. I hadn’t seen him for years and quickly made my way to him to say hello.
David welcomed me with a smile and a raise of his beer bottle. I clunked mine against his and asked him how things were.
‘I am stealing cars again’, he said. ‘I gave up on Aston’s, though’, he continued.
I was taken aback. I didn’t know that he had ever stopped stealing cars, let alone Aston Martins. He saw that look of puzzlement on my face and offered an explanation if I wanted it. I said I wanted the longer version. So he began with Jennifer, to talk about the end.
‘I have had my heart break a couple of times but only she managed it to rip it apart to pieces. Her petite monstrosity slashed me to size. Her green eyes trapped me in puddles of pain. She pulled me close only to whisk me away to oblivion, periodically and randomly. And yet, through all this, she isn’t really to blame. Although I was blinded by her, I continued to sludge through.’
It had been a few years since we met and I wasn’t expecting him to be this forthcoming. We were good friends but with David nothing was ever painfully clear except his adoration for Jennifer. Maybe this ease of talking about his pain was sign of him handling the break up well. I wanted to offer sympathy but he wasn’t done.
‘The realization came when I summarized our time together. Our best times together were mostly my best times with her. Her best times did not include me. She wouldn’t mind being a part of my heart felt memories but she did not want to particularly star in them.’
I asked him when this happened. The break-up post the realization. He said it has been years.
‘I had forgotten who I was. She made me stop stealing Aston’s and I agreed because I thought it was a fair trade. But she shattered me and left me alone to pick up my own pieces. I did manage to build myself whole again but I was unable to follow the original instructions. It led to a re-configuration of sort; the sorts that takes years of trial and error.’ David said unflinchingly.
We both sipped through the pause. I was happy to see him at a party. I was not happy to his story. He was thoroughly neutral but slightly lost in a crowd. It wasn’t the David I remembered but did it matter?
‘Enough about me’, he said abruptly. ‘How was Germany?’ he asked.
I told him about how I met a girl, got married and moved back with. I kept it short. I wasn’t quite sure how he would handle the news my coupling.
‘That’s terrific!’ he said quelling my fears. ‘And what do you drive now?’
I mentioned sheepishly that I drove a Focus ST. His eyes lit up. His face relaxed. This was the conversation that he really wanted. David leaned in.
‘I love the ST’ he said ending with wide smile.
I didn’t tell him and that I loved her too.
