I walked into that meeting like a tourist going to the beach. I kicked back on the couch, said, “What’s going on,” and put my feet up. I didn’t see the tsunami coming.
And the tsunami was inside me, building up as Nick spoke.
I still remember the exact words he said, which were a bit different than what Kevin recalled but hit me a lot harder: “My heart is no longer in this.”
It was like something our dad would say. Very pastorlike. Something an old-fashioned gentleman might say to his partner when getting divorced. It felt formal, serious. . . . and permanent.
The pressure kept building inside me, until Kevin set it loose. Kevin was going on about a breakup tour. “We can figure this out,” he was saying. “We’ll just say, ‘This is it. We’re breaking up. And we’re going to do this farewell tour.'”
How could he be cool with this so quickly? It was all over, and he was trying to market it. This was not okay. I opened my mouth to speak, and the words burst out.