Adam said, “You could have just stayed.” He was sitting cross-legged in a papsasan chair that look more suited for the Goodwill than a supposedly-upscale coffee shop paying top-dollar rent on the upper east side of Manhattan.
“I didn’t even think about staying. It bothers me that you think I would have” Sara’s reply was in the form of a snort.
“Should have, I said. Meaning where do you get off thinking you’re entitled to a better life? You get what you get and make the best of that situation. It isn’t going to be perfect, it isn’t going to be special, it is going to be real and not some sort of bullshit hopeful dream of what could be.”
Sara kept her hair in braids and they rocked back and forth like a beaded curtain as she shook her head. ” I can’t settle when I know what I feel is so strong and true. Maybe if I could forget about my feelings I could go back to the way things were, but there is no Jedi mind trick to wipe out the possibility of what could be, and that alone makes me recognize what I really have in hand right now.”
“Meaning it’s crap.”
“Meaning it isn’t everything I want.”
“When does anyone get everything they want?”
The conversation had circled like this for hours with Sara coming no closer to convincing Adam that her optimism had value and Adam no closer to forcing her to accept his bird in the hand logic. Finally she stood up and said, “no matter how long we keep saying the same things to each other it isn’t going to change either of us.”
With that she walked away.