I hadn't seen or heard from Liz in a good, long while, so running into her in the mall was a bit of a shock, given how much it was out of the blue. It was also a little jolt to see the engagement ring on her left hand, not that I resented her presumed marital bliss. I hadn't been invited to her wedding yet, but I would have been more shocked if I had. Old flames weren't generally the sort of folks who people asked to RSVP at weddings to new people, due to the obvious risks of jealousy, infidelity, etc. in traditionally monogamous marriages at least. I had every reason to suppose that Liz would be a faithful fiancee and wife to her new man at least, although I was skeptical of her fidelity in the past.
I personally had strayed when we were together, not that either of us cheating broke us up, strange as that might seem. Whether or not Liz knew about us (I strongly suspected that she did), I found myself headlong in a steamy, kinky love affair with Aurya Samani, one of the other nurses at the same hospital. Yes, I was a male nurse, and it often led to some interesting situations. While Liz and I were never married, it was still cheating, because I never came clean about it or opened things up back then. It was a relatively dangerous situation at the time, because we worked together and thus violated workplace relationship rules at County General, too. Aurya had a boyfriend back then, too, but he chose to go back to Baghdad for some reason, whereas she stayed behind with me.
I didn't care about Liz's cheating ways, and she likely looked the other way herself, so what broke us up was roughly the same thing that ended Aurya's last romance: travel. She had to go to Tijuana for some family deal and I couldn't make it, which infuriated her enough that she stormed off and never looked back. She returned my engagement ring, too, which really annoyed me to say the least, but at least I sold it and got enough money to pay some debts and had enough left over to take Aurya out to a steakhouse dinner. Yes, it was a fucking expensive diamond ring, but then I inherited it from my favorite aunt. After this incident, however, it was an unpleasant reminder of my breakup. I just couldn't hang onto it anymore.
"Hello, Liz," I bit the bullet and greeted her, taking the chance that we might still not be on speaking terms.
"Hey, papi," she blurted without realizing it, much to my surprise as well as hers.
"Um...shouldn't you call your fiance that, not me? I'm Jacob, your ex-boyfriend, not...whoever your new man is," I broke the ice as well as I could, using my best efforts at humor.
"Ryan. Yeah, he's papi now, but so are you. You'll always be papi to me, Jake. Always. Losing you was like a knife to the heart, or the gut, or something lower. I took quite a while to be able to even contemplate speaking to you. I just imagined the lump in my throat whenever I would try to say something. It was that damn hard for me, believe it or not. I was furious with you, livid even, but that didn't mean a lack of affection. Hell, I was cheating on you back then, you know that I was, you were even cheating on me, and it still hurt like a throat punch to lose you," Liz let so many honest feelings out that I was a bit shaken at first.
"Wow...I knew that we had a hot and heavy, if rather stormy, romance, you and I, but I didn't fully grasp the impact that it had on you. Not until just now, with you telling me such things. Do you want to grab something in the food court or Ruby Tuesday and maybe talk it over some more? This might go over easier with some grub or some wine or...beer. Or whatever. Maybe just some calamari. For my part, I was worried that I'd stutter like a damn fool and really sound even worse, like an idiot," I admitted, making Liz feel a bit more comfortable, as I could see in her eyes.
"Your wife won't object, or are you still a cheater, too?" Liz inadvertently implied that she wasn't the faithful sort yet herself.
"I married Aurya. You remember her, right? Same girl who I strayed with. Fellow nurse at County General. We now work at different hospitals, as it's much harder to hide a marriage than an affair. Especially if half the doctors attend your very public Assyrian wedding," I informed Liz, making her laugh a bit.
"Well, I think that I see where this is going. Aurya knows you too well to imagine that an old tiger like you has changed your stripes. But then again, you know that she's capable of stepping out, too, don't you? You're a...handsome couple, if she's the same blonde cutie with the olive skin that I recall. Piercing grey eyes, too. It was wise, marrying her. I know that some would disagree with me there, since you're both serial cheaters, but it's good to know your spouse's vices as well as their virtues, know everything about them ahead of time. It's best to enter a marriage with your eyes wide open, wouldn't you say?" Liz said as she gestured for the Ruby Tuesday and I took her hand to lead her there.
"I quite agree, babe. Just as you know very well, going in, that if we do sit down to eat together, it's a date, and there's at least a chance that I'll jump your bones afterward," I grinned at Liz as the cougarish hostess guided us to our spot.
"If she doesn't jump yours, first," Liz teased me by referring to the rather eager and buxom hostess.
"I thought that she wanted you myself, but maybe she swings both ways," I retorted, making Liz laugh so hard that she cried.
"I do, so if you and Aurya ever want to...you know, fool around," Liz put her fingers on my hand, even as the pimply-faced waiter joined us.
"Hello, I'm Steve. I'll be your server today. What can I get for you? Drinks, appetizers?" the waiter told us.
"Maybe some summer sausage? Just kidding. Calamari sounds nice, as does a margarita, if you can do that for me," Liz ordered, enjoying the effect that she clearly had on the poor lad.
