Page 56 of Hard to Get

“She’s now been married four times.”

“Jesus.”

“I know.” Stella shakes her head. “She just won’t see that men don’t help your life, they just make it more work.”

I lift an eyebrow. “That’s your experience?” What kind of men has she been with?

“Well, yeah, it is, actually.”

“I’m sorry.”

She tilts her head and gives me a strange look. “Usually, guys get defensive when I say something like that.”

I chuckle and lift my beer. “I know you weren’t talking about me, so it’s fine. There are lots of garbage guys out there. I saw it with my sisters.”

“Right.”

“Did some guy screw you over?”

She looks like she’s not sure she wants to talk about it. “He didn’t cheat on me, if that’s what you mean. I just got so tired of managing everything in both our lives.”

“Did you live together?” I don’t like thinking of her with another guy, but I’m curious.

“Yeah. For about a year. We were together three years.”

“Whoa. That’s a relationship.”

“Yes. It was.” One corner of her mouth deepens.

“What happened?” I want her to talk to me. To be honest. But maybe it’s too soon.

“I guess my feelings changed. I did everything for us. For him. He couldn’t manage his own finances. Had no idea how to save money. Ran up credit card debt. He could cook a few things, but couldn’t follow a recipe. Couldn’t even sew on a button. I had to remind him to go to his dentist and doctor appointments.”

“Sounds like a child.”

“That’s basically how I ended up feeling. Like his mother. Which is very unsexy, you know?”

“I get it.”

“So that’s why things ended.”

“Good for you.” I take a gulp of lager. “How long ago did you break up?”

“What day is this…”

My jaw sags.

She laughs. “I’m joking. It was a few years ago.” She pauses. “Have you… been in relationships?”

Well, she was honest with me, so I owe her that in return. “Yeah. I had a girlfriend in high school. Then in Abbotsford the few years I lived there, but it wasn’t really serious and we basically mutually agreed to end things when I moved here.”

“Abbotsford’s not that far away.”

“Yeah. I think it was more a clean way to end things. Since then, I haven’t really met anyone else I wanted to get serious with.”

“And you bugged me about not going on second dates.”

“I did not! I merely wanted to know if I was going to get a second date.”