“So…” I said, an accusation heavy in my voice.
“Gregory, I…” he stopped, then laughed for a moment.
“Something funny?” Colleen asked just a hint of anger underneath her usual professional manner.
James smiled at me, but it was an unhappy smile, sorrowful and full of grief. “No, nothing is funny about this whole situation,” James lamented. “My boss is betrayed; our entire class is divided and in addition to my wife screaming at me all day yesterday I am about to lose my job. So no, nothing is funny, but I either laugh with a little gallows humour or I cry.”
I smiled cautiously back at the guy. I always did like James, he was hard-working, and until this morning when Colleen brought him to my attention, I thought he would be with us forever.
I smiled back, “James, why don’t you start from the top?” I asked, trying to sound casual and supportive.
He nodded, adjusting himself awkwardly in the chair he was sitting in.
“Uh, I suppose you have heard too many times now about how perfect Jillian and Troy were together in high school?” he asked me; I nodded.
“In the past few days, I have heard nothing else but…” I responded.
He nodded, “In high school I was always a math geek, I wasn’t bullied, but neither was I in the popular crowd. However, we all watched Jillian and Troy. They were the king and queen of our year.”
James looked at me for a reaction. Getting none, he continued.
“When our final year was winding up, and university placements were coming out, we all thought they would be going together, but the entire school was shocked when Troy announced he would be heading overseas without Jillian.”
Again he paused. I nodded. I knew some of this story, and wordlessly I gestured for him to continue.
“Well, they broke up the week before school finished, Troy ended up going to a few parties, but Jillian never went. Over the break between the end of school and starting university, I saw Jillian twice. She looked broken and withdrawn. Then a few months later, I heard from someone else that Troy was living it up in the states. He had a full-ride scholarship thanks to his family, and the gossip was that he already had a girlfriend.”
I nodded again. I also heard this from Jillian as I helped her stand up again during the getting to know you phase of our relationship. She had cried into my shoulder a few times in the early days about how it hurt that Troy would abandon her and take on another girlfriend. It was on the back of one of these conversations that Jillian and I shared our first kiss and I asked her out on a date. After that Troy started to become a distant memory to Jillian. That is until recently…
James continued, bringing me out of the memory. “Well, I headed off to university myself, got my degree, met and married Sherri and felt fortunate to land a role here…”
His smile was a little bittersweet.
“I was surprised when I learned that you had married Jillian,” James admitted. “Honestly, I was pleased to see how happy she was with you. I mean, Troy leaving hurt her so much. To see that she landed with a good man that helped her land on her feet made me glad at the time.”
For a moment, James became lost in his own thoughts, so I jumped in.
“So when did you learn about Troy and Jillian’s affair?” I asked, surprised at the neutral tone of my voice. I think James was too as he looked at me a little funny as there was no hostility in it.
“About an hour before Jillian and yourself turned up for dinner.” He said dejectedly. “A few of the class were talking. I picked up something about Jillian leaving you for Troy later that evening and my surprise registered on everyone’s faces.”
I gave James a questioning look. He sighed.
“Until the dinner, only a handful of people knew anything. But everyone in the class got told that Jillian and Troy were supposed to be together. Mark and Lina pulled Sherri and me aside, telling us that it was happening and while they felt sorry for you, that Jillian had made her choice and you just weren’t a part of her future.