Don't Tell Me You've Gone Astray

I stare at the buildings as Frank drives. I consider making a joke about how he's probably too short to see over the steering wheel but, I refrain. Rain is now pouring heavily from the sky. I left my car in the coffee shop parking lot. It would be fine there for now. I would rather go home with Frank. Frank turns on the radio. The sound of a catchy, pop-by-numbers song fills the car. He makes a comment about how awful the radio is now. I nod in agreement.

"Hey, Gee?" He asks, turning to look at me.

"Keep your eyes on the road." I remind him.

He doesn't reply but, turns his attention back to the road. We stop at a stoplight.

"Have you talked to Bert since it happened?"

I focus my attention on the car in front of us, trying to look at anything other than Frank. I make a game out of trying to memorize the license plate number.

"No. I ended it as soon as you found out."

I'm not lying. The day Frank found out, I completely dropped all contact with both of them. Bert still probably doesn't even know that Frank knew.

"Oh."

The light finally turns green. I'm not sure how to read his response. Frank is a mystery to me.

We eventually arrive at Frank's house. It's exactly the same as I remember, just like the diner he works at. Everything is clean and orderly in contrast to my disaster area of an apartment.

"You can sit down."

I don't know why I feel uncomfortable. I shouldn't. I've been here hundreds of times before. There's a new picture on the mantle above his fireplace. It's a picture of him in his waiter uniform standing in front of the diner. There's a gold plaque at the bottom of the frame that says:

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR
FRANK IERO
GARDEN STATE DINER
2004-2005

"You were employee of the year?"

"Yeah. I got that right after you moved. Adam and I went out for drinks that night. It was fun. Too bad you missed it."

I feel slightly jealous. Adam doesn't even swing that way I don't think but, I still feel a little hurt that he just moved on as if our breakup was just a little inconvenience to him.

"Yeah. I wish I could have been there."

Does he want another apology?

"It's alright. We just had a few drinks and came back here."

I know what he's doing now. He wants to make me jealous. He's expecting me to ask if anything happened between them. He's expecting me to beg him to come back to me so he can turn me down and rub it in my face. He wants revenge. I'm not falling for it. I'm not playing his game.

"Oh. Mikey told me the other day that he hasn't seen you in a while."

I'm changing the subject. I'm breaking his rules.

"How is he?" Frank asks. "Last time I talked to him was about a month ago."

"He's fine." I reply. "He asked if you were still working at the diner. I told him you still were."

Frank and I are both now sitting on his couch. He's sitting close to me. I don't understand what he's doing. He wants to reel me in and then make me jealous.

I hope it's not going to get to me.