This is crazy, Brian thought as he crouched behind his ex-girlfriend Natalie’s couch. He shouldn’t have come, but he had, and he knew why he had.
Nat’s friends had invited him to her surprise party. Why they had invited him, he didn’t know. He hadn’t seen them, or Natalie, in almost four months, but they had called him and told him he should come. He shouldn’t have accepted, but he had, and here he was now, crouching behind her couch with the lights off and her friends on either side of him.
It was hard to admit, especially to himself, but he was still in love with her. For four months, the idea had tortured him. They would still be together if his pride hadn’t gotten in the way.
His thoughts were silenced as footsteps were heard outside. Someone shushed the room and the key was heard in the lock. Natalie pushed open the door, flicked on the lights, and…
“Surprise!” Everyone jumped to their feet, smiling. Natalie jumped and looked around at her new boyfriend. He was smiling, too, and she began to laugh.
Brian tried to duck behind somebody, but he was pushed forward again by someone walking by. He tried to smile as Natalie’s eyes landed on him, but as her smile faded, his did too.
“Brian?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
The room quickly grew quiet as all eyes turned to Brian.
“Happy birthday,” he replied, smiling hopefully.
“How could you come here? On my birthday?” she cried.
“Nat, we shouldn’t do this here,” Brian said as he stepped around the couch.
“No, we’re gonna do this. Here.” Natalie stared at him, her expression one of disbelief. “How could you come to my birthday, after what you did to me?”
“Your friends invited me and I came.”
“Why? I haven’t seen you in four months, we broke up. Why did we break up? Because you cheated on me!” Natalie shouted.
“I made a mistake, I admitted it then, and I’m admitting it now. And you know something else? I loved you then. And I still love you now. But I’m trying to move on.” The last line was a lie. He wondered if she could tell.
“I am trying to move on, but when you show up, out of the blue-”
“Four months later!” Brian yelled. “Four months you haven’t seen me, heard from me, but you still haven’t moved on.”
“Oh my God, how full of yourself are you? How the fuck do you know I haven’t moved on?”
“If you’ve moved on, you wouldn’t be so pissed at me being here. You’ve moved on? I don’t think so. And here’s something else you don’t wanna hear: you still love me.”
Natalie stared at him, her mouth open slightly. She was at a loss for words. Everyone in the room stood in an uncomfortable silence.
“Yeah. You know I’m right.” Brian stared at her a moment, then sighed. “You can’t lose me, Nat. We both know how much we were to each other. I haven’t lost you. You can’t lose me. You may have lost the will to trust, the will to love, but you can’t lose me.” Brian walked forward and stood in front of her a minute, then handed her a small, wrapped package. “Happy birthday.”
Every pair of eyes in the room followed him as he stepped around Natalie, opened the front door, and left the house.
Natalie stared down at the gift in her hands, then slowly opened it.
Brian got into his truck, started it up, and back out of the small street beside Natalie’s house. As he drove slowly down the street away from the house, he heard his name being called. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he saw Natalie running down the street towards the truck. He hit the brakes and put the truck in park, then opened the door and got out.
Natalie ran up to him and stopped, panting ever so slightly.
“What is this?” she asked, holding up the small black box.
“Something I was gonna give you four months ago but I got scared and I got drunk and I made the biggest mistake of my life. And then we broke up.”
“You were gonna give me this?” Natalie asked, opening the box and looking down at the diamond ring inside.
“Surprise.”
Natalie stared up at him and something flashed in her blue eyes.
“Have you really moved on?” she asked softly.
“No.”
Natalie smiled slightly, and then threw her arms around Brian. He hugged her back tightly.
“I’ve missed you,” he murmured. Natalie nodded against his chest.
“I missed you, too.”
“What about that guy back at the house? The one who didn’t run after you?”
Natalie smiled slightly at the dig. “Rebound. They never work.”
“At least not this time,” Brian replied.
“Nope.”
Brian pulled back from Natalie and looked at her.
“I really am sorry about what happened. I guess I should walk over hot coals or broken glass, or sleep on a bed of nails or something. I could arrange it.”
“That’s not necessary. I forgive you. I forgave you a month ago.”
“Good.”
“Can we start over where we left off?”
“Go back a few days, yeah. That fight we had wasn’t pretty.”
“Okay. Good.”
“I love you. Never stopped.”
“I know. I love you, too.”
Natalie pulled the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger, then kissed Brian as they stood in the middle of the street.
