This Is How You Get Her Back

Six

"I'm sorry," I nervously say to Alessandra as I drive us home. Her meeting with Juliet ended shortly after our argument in the comfort room. "I was being immature and unreasonable, and I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

She doesn't respond.

"Are you still angry with me?" I ask with a hurting chest and shaky hands.

"Are you still an asshole?" she rebuts softly.

"No. I'm sorry. I won't comment about you and Juliet again."

"Your comments about Juliet and I aren't the issue here. It's how you responded. That was really immature, and I don't want to talk to you when you're immature."

"I'm sorry."

-

Days pass and everything progressively gets worse: Alessandra is on her phone 99% of the time when she's home (which she barely is anymore), we argue about the most shallow things, and every time I bring up Juliet, Alessandra leaves.

All I have is Francine, who is thankfully telling me about all that Alessandra has been gushing to her about. I don't know why she's doing it, but I'm grateful. All she asks is that I don't tell Alessandra about what she's telling me.

"Alessandra," I greet my girlfriend on the phone after she finally picks up. I've been trying to call her for 10 minutes to inform her of my invitation to speak for a conference. But my excitement is replaced by annoyance, thanks to her being so difficult to contact.

"Yeah?" she asks dryly. What?

"Who were you... umm... who were you on the phone with? It's just... I've noticed that you're on your phone all the time now and it's so difficult to call you lately because your phone is always busy—"

"What happened to the girl who literally said 'you can try' every time someone flirted with me?"

Growing furious, I clench my phone tighter. "So you were calling someone who's flirting with you?"

"I didn't even say that!"

"You didn't even deny it."

She shuts up.

"Is it Juliet?" I ask.

"It's not like that. I'm talking to other people too—" she pauses, realizing how bad she sounds. "s**t, wait, that's not what I meant. I—"

I end the call and shoot a text to Francine to meet me at a cafe nearby.

-

"Rubio. I got you something," I heard a sweet voice say behind me as I scanned through books for a research paper.

I turned around and spotted the cutest girl in the universe, holding a bouquet of flowers. A smile immediately found its way to my lips, and my heart jumped out of my chest.

"Wow. Hi. Oh my gosh. Are those—are those for me?" I asked as I looked behind me (which was stupid because I almost hit my face on a book because I completely forgot that a bookshelf was behind me) to check if she was talking to someone else.

She laughed. "Yeah, you dork."

I swear I almost fainted. I took the bouquet and hugged it to my chest. "Thank you so much. Wow, I didn't expect this. Like, from you. Not because you don't seem romantic or anything okay oh my gosh but because you're so out of my league and—"

"You're rambling, Rubio," she said with a laugh. "Dinner with me tonight, yeah? As usual? If you're not busy, that is."

"No, no, I'm never busy for you," I clarified. "I'd love to have dinner tonight."

I felt a hand loop around my waist. "Hey, Lauren," a familiar woman (Sarah? Sofia? I forgot.) whispers to my ear, very rudely interrupting Alessandra and I. She's very attractive, but no. I got my eyes on Alessandra.

I stepped away from her immediately. I took a look at Alessandra, who had a confused frown on her flawless face.

"Uhh, I'm kind of in the middle of something important here," I asserted to the woman.

Rude girl started tracing my abdomen. "Are you free tonight?" she asked, no shame at all.

"No. Can you please leave? I'm seeing someone already," I respectfully rejected her and she finally took the hint and left.

"Who was that?" Alessandra inquired.

"I don't even remember. Sorry, that makes me sound like an ass but I swear I'm working on it and I haven't even slept with anyone since—okay I should probably stop talking. I'm rambling again."

She smiled and crossed her arms, making me nervous and giving me a boost of confidence at the same time. "So you got your eyes on someone, huh?"

"Just some really amazing girl I met a few weeks ago."

She tilted her head to the side. "Who might that be?"

"Some loser who's had the biggest crush on me since forever. I decided to finally give her a chance, after much begging. She gave me this beautiful bouquet, actually."

She laughed, and I thanked the universe for my sudden burst of confidence. "Oh, really? What's she like?" she asked.

Oh, the things I wanted to say at that moment. But because I was an i***t, I stuck with something dumb.

"She has this really cute French accent and she sucks at bowling."

She feigned insult. "You did not just insult my bowling skills. I beat your ass 3 games straight," she argued with a chuckle.

I playfully rolled my eyes. "That was beginner's luck."

"Rematch this Saturday. If I win, you ditch the jeans for a week and you have to wear a dress every day—"

"But—"

"If you win, we fuck."

That shut me up. "Deal."

I lost the game, by the way. And it took quite some time (read: a lot of time) before I took her to bed. But she's been giving me flowers every single week since then, so who's the real winner here?

-

Let me tell you something about habits. Alessandra giving me flowers every week was a habit.

Habits are ideally regular. Consistent. It's usually difficult to form them, and it's also usually difficult to stop them. But some habits take only one failure of execution for it to cease completely. Alessandra giving me flowers every week was a habit. Was. Was. Was.

She didn't give me flowers last week. Nor did she this week. We've been dating for almost 3 years, and it took only 2 weeks and 1 ex to destroy that tradition. Do you know that feeling when you're losing someone and you can't do anything about it and you're just stuck there watching?

Francine has told me more and more stories about Alessandra and Juliet's conversations because apparently, she's brought along when Juliet and Alessandra hang out. And I've never felt my chest hurt as much before.

I've barely had a single decent conversation with my own girlfriend these past two weeks because she's always on her phone or outside. And she doesn't even seem to mind.

And I'm going crazy because I don't know what to do. All my friends have told me to just talk to her, but I'm scared.

But Francine just texted me that Juliet and Alessandra are together again. So I text my girl.

[Lauren Rubio]: Wru

[Love]: Out. Why

[Lauren Rubio]: Can we talk?

[Love]: About?

[Lauren Rubio]: Us. Wru specifically? I'll go to you.

[Love]: We'll talk when I get home later

[Lauren Rubio]: I asked where are you?

[Love]: ... Club.

[Love]: It's not what it looks like ok? I'm just w my friends. I'm not even drinking.

[Lauren Rubio]: Are you w Juliet?

[Love]: Can we not do this right now pls babe

[Lauren Rubio]: Are you with Juliet??

[Love]: Yes

Can you hear that? That's the sound of my heart breaking and the end of a relationship.

[Lauren Rubio]: I can't do this. If u don't go home right now, we're done.

I press send. And I break down. This isn't fair anymore. I'm being reasonable, right?

Not 10 minutes pass, and I hear someone bursting through my door and sobbing loudly. I stand up from the bed where I've been crying my eyes out, and find Alessandra running up to me and wrapping me in a tight hug.

"No, no, don't do this, Lauren," she cries as I try to get out of her grip.

"I'm so f*****g tired. If you want to be with Juliet, just leave already."

"I want you! Not her! It's not what it looks like, please—"

"You spend all your time with her, and when you're home, all you do is talk to her! You f*****g tell me what about that isn't what it looks like!"

"It's all business—"

"Bullshit. "

"We'll work this out, okay? I'm sorry."

"I can f*****g feel you drifting away from me, Alessandra."

"That's because you're pushing me away!"

"What are you even talking about? How can I push you away when you're not even here? f*****g tell me if you don't want this anymore."

She tries to grab my hand. "What are you talking about? I want this. You know that—"

Then I feel my heart burning up. That just means I'm about to lose my self-control and filter.

"Stop. I know I shouldn't expect, but you haven't even given me flowers for the past 2 weeks and—"

"What are you talking abo—"

"Cut it out, babe. The thing is I'm not even surprised. I know you've been out with Juliet pretty much every single day."

"What?! I'm not—"

"I know about all the gushing and the ranting that you've been doing."

"Who—"

"Cut the bullshit!" I unintentionally scream out. Like, kind of really really loudly. Way louder than I intended. Oh no.

She flinches at my volume. With teary eyes and trembling hands, she steps back. "No. No no no," she says softly before she runs out of the apartment.

Shit.