Follow Me (9781982102005) by Barber Kathleen

Author:Barber, Kathleen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

AUDREY

I hadn’t had a boyfriend since Nick. Izzy blamed Nick for emotionally scarring me (he hadn’t), and my mother suggested I had never gotten over him (I had). My singledom had less to do with Nick and more to do with me enjoying being unencumbered. I liked not having to answer to anyone, liked being able to stay out until five in the morning without a boyfriend questioning my whereabouts. And I really liked being able to pour all my extra energy into building my online brand.

The first time Nick called me while he was in New York, I almost didn’t see him. We were only eight months out from graduation, and the last thing I wanted was to fall back into a relationship with him—and a long-distance one at that. But Nick was Nick, and I was powerless against his clear blue eyes and orthodontia-perfected smile. The next thing I knew, I was waking up beside him and already looking forward to seeing him when he was in town again. I thought I’d finally cracked the code: I got to enjoy my favorite parts of Nick without having to endure his less desirable bits, like the way he used to passive-aggressively “like” comments I made on other guys’ Facebooks or the way he never properly replaced the lid on anything.

Of course, I didn’t let my pseudo-relationship with Nick keep me from exploring other options. I dated occasionally, sometimes seeing someone as many as six or seven times. Most attempts, though, never got off the ground. Far too many dates started with the guy trying to impress me by interrogating the server about the wine list, and then either flat-out ordering for me or making heavy-handed suggestions. (“The only real option here is the branzino,” one particularly insufferable guy had told me, not long before he informed me that Paris was the only “real option” for a weekend getaway.) Depending on how the rest of the date was going, I might play along or I might rebel. The branzino guy earned my scorn for not listening to me when I’d mentioned I was a vegetarian; I mocked him (without including his name or face—I wasn’t that cruel) in my Instagram Stories all night.

These dates often subjected me to a litany of reasons I should feel honored to be in their presence, and then gave me the opportunity to marvel at their wealth, intelligence, and interests—yet their eyes would glaze over when I tried to tell them anything about me. I was nearly always ready to leave before the entrées arrived, but it was obvious they believed they were charming me. Almost without fail, they would casually ask “So where to next?” as they picked up the check. (It was always, always while they picked up the check, the subtext being that I owed them.) Eventually, I had mostly given up on dates. It wasn’t like I was really missing anything in my life, especially not since I had Nick.

But my perspective had started to shift since moving to DC.

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