Page 23 (1/1)

Her face was e off her face in the Gulf breeze The fire in her eyes that I used to see every tione The attraction that sparked when our eyes ered Sheto hurt o into my house, take a shower, and watch TV Alone Please leave Don’t co past this and you My heart is no longer in it The ga is done I’m ready to live life without you I wasn’t before, but I aames with someone else It won’t be hard to find another fe in return That’s what you need to stroke your ego, so go find it Because you won’t find it here anylanced back at the flowers in my hand and took them She held them up and smirked "These are a weak and cliché way to ss over Next ti-boy approach, and don’t spend yourJesus, what did I ever really see beyond your pretty face?" With that final insult, she tossed the flowers onto the ground and went into the house

When the door clicked closed behind her, I stood there, unsure what to do next That hadn’t been what I’d expected I’d thought she’d yell or cry I figured the roses weren’t enough, but maybe they would soften her up so I could talk to her But she’d left s she’d said to me That side of Nan I had never seen I’d heard about it but never witnessed it

My chest felt hollow, and yet there was a sharp pain where she’d shot ht there in the center of it No woain, I’d never round to pick up the roses she’d tossed aside so heartlessly

If she weren’t a job, I could walk away and forget her I didn’t have to take this abuse I didn’t have to let her hurt un as a job, and she would finish as a job I couldn’t let ht now

Nan

I wasn’t going to sit and sulk in front of the TV any longer Binge-watching One Tree Hill on Netflix all day yesterday was enough Today I would need to run off all the popcorn, string cheese, and peanut butter crackers I’d eaten sinceto see if I could take Nate to the park Both things would help get my mind off Gannon and my pathetic existence

Dressed in spandex shorts and a Lulules no longer worked I wasn’t as tight and irl liked her peanut butter crackers and milk as a bedtime snack, it was hard not to have little soft areas on her body My new goal was to fix that I ht not be perfect, but I’d damn well try my hardest

Major

He didn’t call me He never called me He just showed the fuck up when I didn’t want to see him Which was always

"She’s been horess Did you seriously think roses would fucking win Nan over? This isn’t a da off the cigarette inin front of me He was beyond annoyed He was pissed as hell, and I was about to be out of a job Maybe I needed to be out of this job Maybe this shit wasn’t forif this was true or if he was right and that sort of gesture only worked in ro pretend they like flowers Men like the idea that they can please the so damn easy But women are coht They want sacrifice They want to own you They don’t fucking want flowers that’ll just rot and die in a few days"

This guy got Nan to fall for hiht that made him the damn Einstein of women What the fuck ever

"Here, take these" He handed me six envelopes, each a different color: blue, purple, pink, creao to where I tell you and give her the color envelope I instruct Then just walk away Don’t try to talk to her Don’t try to charm her with your idiotic looks She’s over it"

He turned to leave, and I looked down at the envelopes "What’s in the

He paused "A ot the text

Walk to the beach in front of your apartive her the pink envelope

Nan

I hadn’t been paying attention to s, or I would have seen hi out the world, and I’d been focused on pushing myself one more mile This was the sixth mile, but I intended to run ten today just to numb ht in my path I had to coood chance he’d chase after me anyway, and I’d rather remind him oneoutout a pink envelope I reached for it Once I had the so and walked aithout a word What the hell? I looked down at the envelope and then back up at him as he walked up the path toward the street