It was a plain and generic room, and it needed to be transformed with some serious improvements before Peanut was born. I decided that would be an exciting project to start on tonight, so I flicked the switch to boot up the computer. I would do some online shopping and find some adorable items to spruce up Peanut’s spot.

I sat at the desk, impatiently waiting for the computer to groan to life. Now that I had a mission for the evening, I was excited to get started. The computer had just finished its startup routine when an instant message notification dinged and the little icon bounced, indicating someone wanted to talk to me.

I had never used this capability on the computer and honestly hadn’t even realized it had the functionality. I figured that it was one of Court’s many admirers trying to find her. I clicked on the little button, intending to tell him that he was contacting me, not my gorgeous friend.

I was surprised to see the name Sam Davis on the little window. Just seeing his name typed on the screen nearly took my breath away. My palms were clammy as I squinted at the monitor, trying to verify that I wasn’t just imagining him. He had typed one simple word. “Hi.”

I sat there for a long while, just staring at the word. The instant messaging window was flashing, as if demanding a response from me. My planned internet search was completely forgotten as I brought my shaking fingers up to the keyboard. They hung there over the keys for a while. Finally, I typed the word, “Hi” and hit the Enter key to send the message.

Three little dots appeared on the IM window, which I assumed meant that Sam was typing something. I leaned forward, anxiously waiting to see what he was writing. I couldn’t imagine what he would say. It seemed like an eternity of waiting, but it was probably only a few seconds before the new message popped up on my screen. It read, “I met the most amazing, beautiful, wonderful woman.”

I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. I lowered my head and tried to focus on taking air in and out of my lungs, but my throat was burning with unshed tears, making it difficult. I knew that I should want him to be happy, and that I should appreciate him taking the time to tell me personally that he had moved on, but I just didn’t. I desperately wanted to be the woman in his life. The thought of him with someone else made me completely nauseous.