I asked her what exactly she wanted me to do with that information. Lucy shrugged like it was obvious. Then she said the sentence that flipped the switch in my head. She said sometimes she wondered if she should have dated a bad boy before settling down with someone like me. I looked at her for a few seconds.
Then I said, "Okay." Not sarcastically, not loudly, just okay. Lucy seemed a little confused by how quickly I said it. But before she could say anything else I stood up from the table. I walked into the bedroom, grabbed two of the empty moving boxes we still had stored in the closet, and started packing her things.
Clothes first, then the makeup bags on the dresser. At first Lucy stayed in the kitchen. I could hear her moving around, probably expecting me to come back and continue the conversation. About 5 minutes later, she walked into the bedroom. She stopped in the doorway and stared at the open suitcase on the bed.
Then she asked what I was doing. I I her I was helping her move out so she could go date the bad boy she felt like she missed out on. That was the moment she realized I was not joking. Lucy stood in the doorway staring at the suitcase on the bed like her brain needed a few seconds to catch up. Then she laughed.
Not a nervous laugh, either. More like the kind of laugh someone gives when they think the other person is being dramatic. She asked if I was seriously throwing a tantrum over a conversation. I kept folding her clothes and placing them into the suitcase. I told her I was not upset.
I was simply responding to what she told me. If she felt like she needed to experience dating a bad boy before settling down, then she should be free to do that. Just not while living in my apartment and being engaged to me. That was when the smile disappeared. Lucy stepped further into the room and said I was being ridiculous.
She said she had only been talking hypothetically and that normal people would understand that. I told her I understood perfectly. She said she felt like she missed out on a certain type of relationship experience. So, I was removing the obstacle that was apparently standing in the way. Lucy crossed her arms and asked if I was seriously ending a 4-year relationship because of one conversation.
I told her no. I was ending it because of the mindset behind the conversation. That seemed to irritate her more than anything else. She started saying I was overreacting and that her friends were right about me being too sensitive and too serious all the time. While she was talking, I finished packing the suitcase and zipped it closed.
Then I picked it up, walked past her, and set it down next to the front door. Lucy followed me into the living room asking what exactly I thought I was doing. I grabbed the small box with the rest of her things and set that beside the suitcase. Then I opened the apartment door. I told her she should probably call one of the friends who thought I was boring.
Maybe one of them knew a bad boy she could try dating. For a few seconds, she just stood there staring at the open door. Then she realized I was completely serious. That is when she completely lost it. Lucy went from confused to furious in about 3 seconds.
She started asking if I had lost my mind. Then she demanded that I close the door and stop acting like an idiot. I stayed where I was. I told her she had just explained that she felt like she missed out on dating exciting men before settling down with someone stable. So I was giving her the opportunity to fix that.
Lucy said that was not what she meant and that I was twisting her words. But the tone she used made it very clear that she was more angry about losing control of the situation than about the relationship itself. She pointed at the suitcase by the door and asked if I was seriously throwing her out in the middle of the night. I told her she had plenty of friends she had just been drinking with. One of them could probably pick her up.
Then she switched tactics. Suddenly she started saying I was being cruel and unreasonable. She said couples talk about things and work through them instead of immediately ending relationships. I reminded her that she had not approached the conversation like someone trying to work through a problem. She had approached it like someone evaluating whether she had missed out on better options.
That did not go over well. Lucy started raising her voice. She said this was exactly why her friends thought I was boring. According to her I had no sense of humor and I turned everything into some serious moral decision. While she was talking, I picked up the suitcase and placed it just outside the apartment door.
Then I set the box next to it. That was when she realized I was not backing down. She stepped in front of the doorway and said I could not just kick her out like that because she lived here too. Technically she was right about one thing. She had been living there.
But the lease was only in my name and every bill connected to the apartment was also in my name. So I told her she was welcome to come back tomorrow during the day to collect anything else she needed. But tonight she was leaving. Lucy stared at me for a long moment. Then the shouting really started.