"We're… fine," Andrew replied after a few seconds of silence, following Jay's question about Pippa.
Andrew didn't sound convincing, not even to himself.
Jay narrowed his eyes; he knew him far too well to buy that answer.
"Huh… fine," Jay repeated, as if testing the word in the air.
"Yeah, fine…" Andrew echoed, tossing the ball and savoring the word with irony.
The garden fell silent. Only the dull thump of the ball being caught and the murmur of the wind through the trees could be heard, accompanied by the chirping of morning birds.
Finally, Jay spoke, "That fine doesn't sound convincing to me at all."
Andrew caught the ball and paused for a few seconds. "Was it that obvious?"
"Yes. It's clear something's wrong…" Jay replied, hesitating for a moment on whether he should press further or let it go. But then he remembered that time Andrew had called the famous 'family council' to ask for advice about Pippa. He had gotten involved before, he could do it again.
"What is it?" he finally asked.
Andrew lowered his gaze, spun the ball in his hand, and after a brief silence, tossed it back as he answered, "Actually… I've just about decided to end my relationship with Pippa."
The response took Jay by surprise. The ball hit his shoulder and rolled into the grass. He froze, staring at him with his mouth slightly open.
Break up with her? That was much worse than he had imagined. When he'd heard that unconvincing "fine," he had assumed a fight, maybe a couple of typical teenage arguments. But no, this was far more extreme.
"Break up with her?" Jay repeated in disbelief. "That's your definition of fine?"
Andrew chuckled under his breath at his grandfather's reaction. Yeah, his answer didn't sound fine at all.
"I know, but I don't want to bore you with my drama on such a beautiful Saturday morning," he said, giving Jay an out so he wouldn't feel obliged to listen to his relationship problems.
But Jay didn't take the easy way out. He bent down, picked up the ball, and instead of throwing it back, walked over to Andrew and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Come on, tell me what's going on… I'll listen."
Andrew sighed in resignation. 'You don't take the easy way, huh?' he thought, shrugging as he followed him to the garden bench. There they sat down.
Jay remained silent, staring at him, waiting for his grandson to begin.
"Pippa… doesn't trust me," Andrew said, beginning his story. He tried to be as concise as possible, but it wasn't that simple.
The root of the problem with Pippa was distrust. Their first big fight as a couple had arisen because of it: Pippa's jealousy toward Regina.
Nothing had happened, and both of them knew it.
Even so, Andrew admitted that maybe he had been a little too friendly with another girl, and Pippa acknowledged she had let her jealousy get the better of her. They overcame it, and for a long time they lived the best stage of their relationship, truly falling in love.
But everything twisted again after the summer tournament, when Andrew spent a beach day with Monica and Rachel, and the next day went to Comic-Con with Willa, who gave him an expensive figure. Old ghosts came back.
Pippa had been on vacation at the time and didn't attend any of those events. Andrew had been accompanied by Haley, Howard, and Leonard; he was never alone with those girls, and not even a hint of flirting had happened. Even so, the seed of distrust sprouted again.
It was frustrating. After almost two years together, Andrew had hoped Pippa knew his character well enough, that she knew he wasn't the kind of guy to cheat. But apparently, she didn't. Since then, the jealous attitudes had only grown.
With the start of school in September and Andrew at Mater Dei, the gap widened. Pippa grew uneasy whenever he mentioned female classmates, even if the interactions were minimal or inevitable.
Like when he mentioned Nancy, a senior student who was his guide at Mater Dei, Pippa made a scene.
Passive-aggressive comments, subtle reproaches at gatherings with friends, and even awkward public outbursts began to become the norm.
Even the night before, after the game against JSerra, Pippa had thrown out a new complaint, this time about Willa.
She pointed out that Willa didn't seem to have "anything better to do" than show up at all the games to cheer for Andrew, and that if someone else saw her, they might think she was his girlfriend.
Never mind that Willa came along with Leonard, Howard, and Haley, since she was also friends with the latter.
She even reproached Andrew that, some time ago, he had told her Willa would soon have less free time and would see him less… something that hadn't come true. Yes, Andrew had been wrong about that. But the point was that, to Pippa, any girl near him instantly became a threat.
So much so that, in previous games, whenever a cheerleader came up to talk to him, Andrew would grimace or curse under his breath: he knew that if Pippa saw it, it would probably turn into a problem later.
That's why, when he admitted to Jay that he was thinking of breaking up with Pippa, it wasn't some passing whim. It was the inevitable conclusion of months of accumulated tension.
"It's sad and disappointing. After almost two years, the fact that she still doesn't trust me hurts. I've tried different ways to fix it, but nothing has worked. And the worst part is that she doesn't even admit it anymore. It's like she's too proud to recognize it," Andrew said with a sigh.
Of course, this saddened him, but it didn't emotionally destroy him. In his past life, he had experienced the death of his grandfather, the saddest moment in both his lives. A breakup wouldn't break him.
Besides, he had been thinking about it for weeks. The relationship had been fading on its own. After that stage of being in love, when they had lived their best months, things had grown cold in recent times.
Jay listened in silence, frowning. Then he let out a snort, almost as if trying to push the heaviness out of the air.
"Look, kid… when trust is broken, it's very hard to get it back. And especially with this girl, who always carried that problem. Maybe it's because of your popularity, maybe it's her insecurity, who knows."
He leaned back on the bench, staring at the grass, as if replaying memories he didn't much like.
"With your grandma DeDe… the big problem was never whether we loved each other or not. Of course we did, in our own way. The problem was that we didn't trust each other. We tried to carry on as if nothing was wrong, because deep down you tell yourself: we'll fix it, we'll get through this. But the truth is, you never really get through it. And in the end, one of you blows up… or worse, you end up hurting each other more than you should."
"Or worse, ending things after thirty-five years of marriage," Andrew corrected with a half-smile, trying to lighten the mood.
Jay let out a dry laugh and nudged him in the arm.
"Exactly. I don't want you tied down to a girl and going through the same thing I did, like it's a prison sentence. You've got a career ahead of you, big dreams. You can't be spending your Friday nights worried about whether your girlfriend is going to get mad because a cheerleader said hi to you. That'll mess with your head. And what's gonna happen when you go to different colleges? It'll only get worse."
Andrew nodded. His grandfather was right. Harsh, but wise.
"Or worse, she picks the same college as you just to keep tabs on you…" Jay added, in a half-creepy tone, like he was describing a nightmare future where Andrew's every move would be monitored by Pippa.
"That's not gonna happen," Andrew said firmly.
He wasn't the kind of guy who tolerated being controlled. He could put up with the occasional jealous scene, he might even see it as something a little flirty, a possessive gesture that could be oddly endearing. But there was always a line that shouldn't be crossed. And with Pippa, that line had long been crossed.
Jay looked at him with determination, nodding. "If you've already decided, then you did the right thing. It's not easy, but it's better to cut things off in time than to ruin the best years of your life."
"And you, Grandpa? Did you ever have trust issues with Gloria?" Andrew asked, curious.
Jay raised an eyebrow, surprised at the turn in the conversation.
"I mean… Gloria's young, she's beautiful, and I'm sure plenty of men come up to her. Didn't you ever struggle with that? Didn't you ever doubt? Can you actually reach total trust with a partner?"
Andrew wasn't stupid. He aspired to be a professional football player. He'd be surrounded by eyes and spotlights all the time, even more so in college, and even more in the NFL. If he had a girlfriend, it had to be a relationship built on full trust.
Would he ever find a girlfriend who trusted him, or would fame always bring paranoia?
Jay sighed, as if Andrew had hit a nerve.
"Look… of course it was tough at the beginning. I'm not blind, I know exactly how Gloria looks. And I know what happens when we walk into a restaurant and every guy turns his head. Does it bother me? Yeah. Have I ever wanted to punch one of them? Sure."
He paused, scratching his chin.
"But that's the difference with DeDe. With your grandma there was never trust. With Gloria… well, with Gloria I had to make a choice: either I trust her, or I drive myself crazy. And when you really trust, that need to look over your shoulder just disappears."
He patted Andrew's shoulder.
"And you know what? Gloria's never given me a reason to doubt. Yes, she's young, beautiful, gets plenty of looks… but at the end of the day, she chose me. And she proves it every single day. Not with words, but with actions. That's what makes it work."
Jay smirked. "Besides, if I spent my life distrusting her, what kind of life would that be? I'd be old, bitter, and paranoid. Well… more than I already am."
Andrew couldn't help but laugh.
"So, kid, if you already feel like your girlfriend's constantly watching you, and you have to weigh every word so it doesn't blow up into a scene… then there's no trust. And if there's no trust, there's no relationship," Jay concluded.
Andrew lowered his gaze, took a deep breath, and then said calmly, without drama, like someone who had already digested it, "Then it's decided. I'm going to break up with her. I'd been thinking about it already, and this talk just confirmed it."
Jay nodded. He knew Andrew far too well, this decision had already been made long before; he had only given him the final push.
"Are you going to tell your parents?" Jay asked.
Andrew looked at him like he'd just said the most absurd thing in the world. "No way. If I tell them, they'll make a huge deal out of it… especially Dad. And then they'll get completely involved."
Andrew knew exactly how it would go. To Mitchell and Cam, Pippa was the perfect girlfriend: good grades, a clear future, sweet, always supporting him.
It was the perfect movie story, the star quarterback with his high school sweetheart, getting married in the end like a fairy tale. Exactly the kind of story his dads dreamed of telling the whole world.
Jay raised an eyebrow. "Dad…? can you be more specific? You've got two."
Andrew looked at him for a second, then smiled faintly. "Right. Dad Two."
"Dad Two?" Jay tilted his head, curious.
"Yeah, Dad Two, Cam. Since my last name is Pritchett-Tucker, Tucker is Dad Two, and Dad One would be Mitchell."
Jay thought about it for a moment and nodded, almost amused. "You know… that actually makes sense. Although it'd be easier to just call them by their names, wouldn't it?"
Andrew shook his head.
"We're getting off track. The point is, Dad Two is very dramatic. He'll definitely want to sit me down, give me a speech about what true love means, try to convince me to think it over… and in the end, he'll try to sell me on the idea that Pippa's the love of my life. I bet he's already got half the wedding planned in his head."
Jay let out a dry chuckle, easily picturing it. "Yeah, that does sound like Cam."
"Exactly," Andrew went on, "so it's better if they find out when it's already done and they can't do anything about it. So don't say a word, okay? Not even to Gloria. She's a gossip, and she might try to convince me too, since she really likes Pippa and believes in all that eternal love nonsense. And if she tells Manny, even worse."
Jay raised his hands in mock surrender. "Relax, kid. I get it. I won't say anything. Your secret's safe with me."
At that moment, Andrew's phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and saw Dad One's name. He answered quickly.
"Hello…? Yeah, yeah, we're coming." He hung up abruptly and looked at Jay. "They're outside. Let's go."
Jay stood with a grunt, adjusting his jacket. "Perfect. Let's see if the star quarterback knows how to give smart answers in front of the cameras."
"I'll give them first-page answers," Andrew said with a faint smile, and together they started walking toward the exit.
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