I rubbed my eyes. The frustration of this stupid conversation was giving me a headache. Did I break it off with him now and save myself the trouble of having to do it in person? No, that was a shit move, something he would do, and I wanted to be a better person than that.

Me: We can talk tomorrow when I’m done with work. Night Peter.

I waited for a response, but it became obvious he wasn’t going to say goodnight in return. Frustrated, I slammed the phone down, making Tina jump.

“When did you get out of the shower,” Tina asked, and I stared at her face wondering how much she actually missed when she was zoned into the books.

“Like ten minutes ago.”

“Oh, okay. Anyway, while you were in the shower, the lights flickered a few times again, and my computer shut down with the weird outage, so I called maintenance. I had to leave a message, but hopefully, they will be out tomorrow.”

I looked at my computer. “Oh, that sucks. I hope it didn’t do any damage to my computer. Fingers crossed, they come soon. I don’t need another phone to fry because of the crap wiring in this room.”

“Yeah, if anything happened to my computer and my projects were lost, I’d have to go jump off a bridge.”

I laughed, thinking Tina was being dramatic, but her serious stare made me snap my mouth shut. “I guess we better hope they show up tomorrow, then. I really don’t feel like the building burning down around us.”

“So what was with the slamming of the phone, guy troubles?” Tina had turned back to her book, but her headphones hung around her neck, which was her sign for ‘I’m listening.’

“Just Peter being Peter. I know I have to dump him, but….”

“Sometimes it’s easier to stick with the devil you know over the devil you don’t?” Tina looked over, and I nodded as I pondered her words.

Was that really why I was staying with him? Was it simply easier than finding someone else? Yes and no. It was easier not to deal with my mother when I would need to explain why I’d broken it off with Peter. But I didn’t think that was any better reason in the grand scheme of things.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like. Thanks for listening.” I looked up at Tina, but her headphones were back on. I guess that meant I was dismissed.