Turns out, he wasn’t laughing at me. Because he followed me to the station and bailed me out as soon as he could. He used all of his leftover cougar money to get me out, and he won’t even be getting any more because he broke things off with her that day that I left his apartment after he saw how upset I was that she was there for a date. This was all fine and good, but here’s how the conversation went from there:
Paul: I love you.
Me: Thanks.
Paul: What? I love you, you belong to me!
Me: No. People don’t belong to people.
Paul: Of course they do!
Me: I’ll never let ANYBODY put me in a cage.
Paul: I don’t want to put you in a cage, I want to love you!
Naturally, I ran away. This is too much, too soon for me to handle right now. Sure, I like Paul, but telling me that he loves me means that he wants to have me. All to himself. And just how well would that work out for us?
So a few days later I’m in a cab, all ready to go to Miami with all the money I made off of selling those pearl Tiffany earrings from José, when he appears out of no where and hops into the backseat with Cat and I. He starts giving me this speech about how I keep running from my problems and how I say I’m a free spirit but if I keep acting like this and never accept love from anyone, then I’ll never be happy. I couldn’t stand this anymore. In an erratic fury, I threw Cat out of the cab along with the necklace and cried, “No one belongs to anyone! I don’t need anyone but myself!”
Then he left, and threw a little blue box on the seat next to me. I swear I couldn’t breathe for a full minute. I slowly opened it, and there was a gorgeous necklace stamped with “Please return to Tiffany’s.” I started sobbing uncontrollably and leapt out of the cab, realizing the huge mistakes I had just made. I owed it to Paul to give into myself. Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.
I called out for Cat until I caught up with Paul around the block. He was holding Cat. Naturally, I apologized profusely and agreed with him that I have some serious abandonment issues and to please give me another chance.
He said yes, and kissed me. Thank goodness, I don’t have the slightest idea who else would ever put up with me.