He stared at me, taking all of me in too.
The only one who seemed chill was Bandit, who lay at his feet and thumped his tail wildly on the floor.
I was frozen, yet somehow my lips still worked. “Axel.”
He pointed to the small Christmas tree sitting in the middle of my coffee table. “You finally got your fluffy tree.”
And I had ugly cried the entire time I had made it. “Yeah.”
He stared at me with the familiar intensity I had missed so much.
I was mesmerized by his beautiful, focused energy. My wildest memories never quite seemed capable of encapsulating how alive he made me feel in real life.
His voice was calm. “It’s been a while.”
“Almost a year.”
“349 days, actually.”
My lips trembled. Who knew the exact number of days they’d spent apart? Was this proof that he’d come back for me?
I was about to launch myself into his arms when I noticed the annulment papers on the coffee table between us.
He had taken the envelope off the fridge and opened it.
“Is that why you’re here?” I swallowed hard. “For your freedom?”
His voice was short, almost logical. “You signed the papers.”
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“They’re all there.”
He nodded slowly. “Why didn’t you mail them?”
“I meant to,” I lied. “I’ve been busy.”
Was he really here just to pick up some paperwork? After a year of no contact?
I had been waiting for this moment, and this was not how I’d imagined our reunion would go. We were just standing there like two strangers.
I defensively crossed my arms. “You want your freedom?”
He answered with a look that told me nothing.
I could feel my face growing warm. My stomach filled with a scorching rage that threatened to burn me up if I didn’t do something. It was such an unbearable feeling I felt compelled to act.
I looked around, unsure if I should throw something, sit down or scream.
But anger took over and acted on its own. I stomped over to the coffee table, grabbed the papers and crunched them in my fist as I held them up to his face. “You want them, you can have them.”
I held the stack of sheets in front of his face and tried to rip them in half.
It was harder than it looked. And I was completely unsuccessful.
Frustrated, I flipped to the back and ripped off the signature page. “See this? I think this is the only page you really want.”
And then I ripped it in half, and then I ripped that in half. And then I ripped those in half. And I kept going until there was nothing left to rip.
