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It's not that Rody's... bad. The opposite, actually; he's a genuinely good person. He's so bright and enthusiastic, it's difficult not to get swept up in his orbit. For all his faults, he tries. He tries to be a good person, and to him that means burning everything at the altar of his love for—something, anything, someone.
That someone could be Manon. And that terrifies her. He'd uproot his whole life if she asked him to. Sometimes she thinks she should; she looks out at his trashed apartment and barely suppresses a wince as he laughs sheepishly and apologizes, says he'll clean it up.
Rody makes her happy. Manon makes him happy; sometimes it feels like she's the only thing in his life that does that. And that's not what she...
"He was just so clingy," she confides in Vince, as she's perched on the kitchen stool watching him work.
Maybe she shouldn't talk too much about an ex in front of her current boyfriend while he's cooking something for her. Not that Vince seems to mind. There's little that he seems to mind or that he does just for her approval; he's standoffish, self-sufficient. Focused entirely on his work. Sometimes it feels less like he wants to be with her and more like he's just humoring her, tolerating her presence in his kitchen.
She'll take it.
"He did—does care for me," she continues. "I know that, I felt that... but it was just too much, you know? He kept calling after we broke up, but I couldn't bring myself to respond. It feels kind of cruel."
"He'll get over it," Vince says, blunt as ever, barely looking up from the chopping board.
Manon thinks she would have minded it more before Rody. Right now it's just what she needs. She can breathe, without the weight of devotion and expectation. Just someone to talk to, to sit beside; someone who likes to listen.
She sighs. "I hope so."
Maybe one day... maybe they'll meet again, and he won't be too willing to hitch all his happiness on someone else. Maybe one day he won't be so willing to ruin his life for her, she won't be the reason he lets his life fall apart. Maybe she could wait for the day he can be a person with her instead of for her.
For now, she just... needs space.