There were two guys at an airport looking out the window seeing airplanes take off. One of them was very quiet and anxious. The other was just quiet, too quiet.
—She left. I guess it’s really over now.
—Yeap.
—Are you gonna cry?
—Fuck no. Who do you think I am?
—I don’t know. I honestly thought you were going to get in the plane or say something.
—Get in the plane? Are you crazy? How was I supposed to do that?
—I don’t know! You go and buy a ticket, get in the plane or at least tell her you love her in customs. What the fuck do I know? You are the romantic one.
—Yeah, well… that’s probably why I didn’t bring my wallet.
—Or your passport. —Interrupted his friend.
—Or my passport. I guess that’s why you came, right?
—Well, I am a little disappointed. I was expecting something of a show here.
—Then I am sorry my attitude didn’t live up to your free and casual afternoon entertainment. Next time I’ll run to the runway and try to stop the plane with a SUV. Bruce Willis’ style.
—Ok, besides the obvious free drama show I was expecting to see I’m also supporting you as a friend.
—It’s ok.
—No, I mean it. You’ve been hitting on this girl for like, I don’t know, a quarter of your life. I supposed that you would be on your knees with your fist in the air asking god for an answer.
—God has nothing to do with this.
—Wasn’t Denzel who said that on “Man on fire”?
—I don’t know. Whatever, the point is she left. That’s all. I’m over that.
—Are you insane? You’re not over “that”, don’t you fucking dare saying you “are over that”. I mean did she have like cocaine in her perfume? Because I don’t know any other way you can get addicted to someone without physical contact.
—Coming from a self-proclaimed pimp it’s hard to explain.
—Try me, oh you master of love and purity.
—She brings out the best of me.
—Congratulations, you have now become a woman in front of my eyes.
—You see…
—I’m sorry! Please, continue. I’m just joking.
One of the guys pulled out a box of Tic-Tacs out of his pockets and shakes out the last one out of the box. He ate it.
—Well, when I was around her everything was different. Plans really worked out, timing was fine and we always had something to talk about.
—That’s normal, dude.
—Yeah, that’s the normal part. Yet when I talked to her or did something for her a part of me was doing things great. It’s like a switch that says “relax and do your best”. I look back and there are a million stupid things I did that never got the attention, or verbal recognition you would think normal for my effort. Yet I’d like to think that there was a silent pact that she knew that I couldn’t do that for anyone else but her and anyone else was going to do it for her. I would outdo myself every time and that’s something I’m proud of.
—And what did you win with that?
—She made me feel like I was a better person. Sometimes I think it wasn’t about her as much as it was about me.
—You once told me the only one that can bring the best of you is yourself.
—Bullshit. You know what you need and you always cut yourself some slack. There are comfort zones, you reach them and if it was up to you, you’d stay there as long as you could. It’s the people around you that demand you to be better, the circumstances. She wasn’t a circumstance, just someone that could push my comfort zone naturally to places I could enjoy reaching.
—But, you never dated.
—Nope, you can call me a loser for that.
—Loser.
—Shut up.
—Ok, I see your point and I still find fascinating that you didn’t say anything to her today. You know, like screaming “I love you, please don’t leave”.
—Do I have to say it? When you go to the doctor does he tells you to say your diagnosis out loud for it to be real? I know that, she knows that and she wasn’t going to do anything to make that happen. When she was dating someone the only reason why you asked me how I felt was because you were looking for the insight story and me to relieve some tension.
—Then why do you keep persisting?
—Aren’t you hearing me? It’s fucking natural, it’s in my power. I was there when she needed me and a part of me loved helping her. I’m not saying it was great, but no other person made me feel like that. Today I think it’s better to have done all of those things instead of wondering what would’ve happened if I just sat in my ass waiting for someone else. That’s precisely why I’m over this.
—There’s her plane.
—Yeap, there it is.
—Ok, it’s time for you to pull out the rocket launcher or the EMP device you have stashed to stop them.
—Shut up.
—Ok, after hearing your explanation I can only come to one conclusion.
—That being…?
—You have strong convictions. But you never forced her to choose anything, it was working for her.
—Forced her? It was a choice. She could’ve taken it whenever she needed it. She was stupid for that.
—She was the girl you wanted, right?
—Part of it. We only fall in love for like a 30% of the person, the rest is our idea, we idealize it. Then the rest of the relationship is waiting for the other person to partially show the other 70% as slow as they can. If you manage to blind yourself about believing the other percentage doesn’t suck or you kind of like it, then you have something you can live with. Honestly I will never say I got to know her, but she got me to know myself.
—So, she wasn’t The One.
—That’s just a number. It’s all in the mind.
—You know, I always thought she was really stupid for not taking you seriously. Like the other day I was drunk and I totally said it. “You’re stupid” and she laughed, then I laughed and it all lost sense. But I said it.
—Thanks bro, I’m stupid too.
—Do you see the plane?
—I wasn’t looking at the plane.
—What are you looking at?
—American Airlines logo, it’s like the eagle is kneeling.
—I used to think the logo was a pair of scissors.
—Oh my god, you’re an idiot.