Words spoken by Gabe to me, words told to me by my mom. Lies! All Lies! His heart and mind have both forgotten me. Turning off the shower, I wrap myself in a towel. The mirror in front of me is fogged and I wipe it with my hand. I don’t recognize the broken woman staring back at me. Tired, heavy eyes, circled with purple smudges, pale skin, chapped lips. I am a total mess.

How am I going to survive this pain?

Gabe’s called me five times already since last evening and I’ve disconnected each of his calls and refused to reply to his various text messages. His last message mentioned he’d drop by in the evening to check on me. Well, I won’t be there for him to check anything because if I see him, I will punch him, hard. It’s because of him I am in this position. He didn’t allow me to tell Damien first off that I was his wife and now I’m way worse than ever. Now he’ll never believe or accept what I am to him.

Jonathan’s the only other person I know in this city and so when he called asking me out tonight, I agreed to meet him, just for some human company. I leave the bathroom and enter the adjoining bedroom to get my war paint on. I may be broken on the inside, but I will go out tonight. I’m tired of being miserable. I only want a regular night out with a friend and not think of all the burdens in my life.

♦♦♦

I REACH THE NIGHTCLUB and look around for Jonathan. He waves at me from a tall corner table in a cordoned off section and pulls me in a hug as soon as I reach him.

“Hey there,” he says with his usual cheer. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

Even though I’m resolved to take tonight by storm, thoughts about my future remain frozen on my mind. I heave a harsh breath, refusing to once again fall into the gutter of misery. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to my reality. Tonight, I’m going to forget all that is going on with me and drown all my unhappy thoughts in a nice drink or maybe two or three.

Jonathan narrows his eyes. “Is everything alright? Are you okay?”

“Brilliant,” I reply with a forced smile.

We order our drinks and soon I’m laughing at Jonathan’s tales. We’ve been in touch over the last week ever since I started work on his project so we’re already quite familiar with one another and Jonathan has a knack of making anyone comfortable. But at some point tonight I’ll have to tell him I won’t be able to work on his project anymore because I absolutely refuse to work with Damien after his hateful behavior.