Working at the clinic has been great. Pattie and Jules are becoming real friends I can rely on, and I’m generally able to avoid interacting with Joey because most of his clients are scheduled in the afternoons or evenings.

While I’m definitely getting over him, he seems to be having difficulty letting it go. Every time we’re in a room alone, which isn’t very often, thankfully, he makes nice with me. Once he tried to hug me, so I gave him a jab to the kidneys. That was the last time he attempted physical contact.

Today our appointments are opposite each other, so whenever he has a break, I’m with a client, and whenever I have a break, he’s training someone. I may have orchestrated this on purpose.

At the end of the day I change into street clothes and grab my bag from my locker, wondering if Jerkwad missed our underwear fashion show today. Tomorrow I’ll bring my A game to make up for it. I smile at the thought, but it quickly disappears when I turn to find Joey crowding me.

“Hey.” He does that weird, awkward, pretend-shy thing where he jams his hands in his pockets and kicks the end of my shoe. It’s very grade school. I used to think it was cute. Now all I want to do is kick him in the shin, hard, while wearing steel-toed boots. Unfortunately that’s workplace harassment.

I shoulder my backpack and try to step around him, but he mirrors the movement. I sidestep the other way, and he does too. It’s like a bad rendition of do-si-do. I fight the urge to maim him and sigh instead. “What do you want?”

He leans against the lockers, getting all up in my personal space, especially since mine is the last one in the row, which means I end up between him and the wall. “It feels like we haven’t talked in forever.”

I blink but don’t respond, because really, what can I even say to that?

“Can we go for coffee or something?”

“No. We can’t.” I wish I had a cool superpower that would allow me to scale walls or jump really high so I could get away from him without having to make physical contact. It’s been weeks, but I still don’t have the desire or energy to deal with him, so generally I don’t. I dislike confrontation, and I fear that I’ll lose it on him when we finally do talk, and work would not be the ideal location for that to happen.

“Why not?”

“Because you were warming your dick in a vagina that wasn’t mine.”

He makes a face like he doesn’t appreciate the image I’ve painted. I don’t particularly like it either, but it is accurate. “Come on, Stevie. You can’t be mad at me forever.”

I put a hand in front of his face, and he takes a step back, possibly because he thinks I’m going to hit him. It’s definitely something I’d consider if I wasn’t so opposed to domestic violence. Self-defense is a whole different beast, though. “First of all, you don’t get to tell me how to feel about any of this, particularly how long I’m allowed to be angry. As far as I’m concerned, I wasted a year of my life being your girlfriend, and I have zero plans to waste more time, emotion, or energy on anything related to you.”

“I made a mistake.” He’s whiny rather than remorseful.

“How many times did you happen to make that mistake?”

“I was alone out here for two months.”

Well, now I know it wasn’t an isolated incident. “A mistake becomes a choice when you make it more than once. Looks like maybe you should’ve thought about the consequences before you made yours.”

“Baby, I get that you’re—”

“Hey! There you are!” Pattie and Jules, bless their hearts, manage to worm their way between us. They flank me like very pretty bodyguards and thread their arms through mine.

Jules flashes a smile I can only describe as extra syrupy with a side of fake at Joey. “So sorry to interrupt, but we need Stevie.”

Joey’s overly groomed eyebrows furrow. “We were talking.”

“Really? Because it looked a lot like you were trying to corner her,” Pattie says.

Jules shoulders him out of the way, and my feet barely touch the floor as they basically carry me through the staff lounge. We have to turn sideways to get through the door because they refuse to unlink their arms. I feel a bit like Dorothy with the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, minus the Yellow Brick Road, as we walk down the hall toward the front doors.

We burst out of the building, and still they keep their arms linked with mine as we bust it down the street, past university campus buildings. My bus stop is in the opposite direction, and I’d like to tell them this, but I don’t want to appear ungrateful for the save.

Jules looks over her shoulder. “He’s not following us; we’re good.”

They unhook their arms from mine, and we shuffle off to the side so students can pass us on their way to and from their afternoon and evening classes. Working at a university clinic is interesting. It straddles a line between nostalgic and wistful, especially since the three of us are fresh from graduate school and could still pass for students, even though we’re not.

“Thanks for getting me out of there.” I shake off the uneasiness I feel when thinking about confronting Joey.

“It looked tense.” Pattie gives my arm a gentle squeeze.

“It’s annoying more than anything.” For the most part I can avoid him, but it seems like he’s made it his mission to seek me out every time we’re in the building together.