His face drops into an annoyed glare, making my cute moose look like he was temporarily possessed by the grumpy Care Bear.
“I’m two seconds from throwing this brick out the window on the interstate,” he waves his phone at me. “Please tell me youbroke up with that Nathan guy, because your actual husband is driving me freaking crazy.”
His sudden irritation catches me off guard. “What are youtalkingabout?”
“Nonstop messages about how I’m supposed to treat you today. Just tell me you broke up. Please.”
“Yeah. It’s over.”
His face softens instantly. “Are you okay? You’re not sad?”
“I’m just relieved. I feel stupid for staying as long as I did … or at all. I just need to be sure he knows it’s over.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
My eyes drop to my lap. “Because I’ve gone back before.”
“Ohh, Lu Lu. When did you break up?”
“Yesterday. I told him I was done and walked out.” Icannottell him more than that. Not yet.
“Was it bad? I’m sorry. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“The fight helped me, honestly. Then you showed up and distracted me. I talked to DC a lot yesterday, so I’m good.”
He leans sideways to hug me the best he can in the car. “You should've told me this wasn’t a good time, Smalls.”
“I think if there was ever a good time to do something completely out of my comfort zone, it’s right now.”
“So Danny knows it’s over? He knows for sure?”
“I hope so. We talked for an hour twice yesterday, not counting when you called Aunt Judy.”
He reaches for me again, but I pat his arm and gesture for him to start driving. I’m ready to move on.
“I’ve tried to call Nathan all day. He won’t answer, so now I have to text.”
“He’s ignoring you?” He scrunches his face in confusion.
“Probably.”
“What if it was just an argument and you wanted to talk about it?”
“That’s not possible with him.” I shake my head. “He explodes, shuts me out, or both. I get all panicky, and then I don’t want to bring it up again when it’s over.”
“Why didn’t you just break up a long time ago?”
“I don’t know! Maybe because my dad did it my whole life. It’s not like I could break up with my dad, so I got used to it. If he was in a mood, I’d turn up the music and distract myself until things were better. I guess I did the same thing with Nathan.”
“That is all kinds of messed up! So if you don’t get through to Nathan, he’ll think you’re still together until he decides to speak to you?”
“Maybe. I said I was done, but he might say we had a fight and I ran off with you. Who knows? He’ll spin it whatever way makes me the bad guy.”
After talking it out with Mom and Annie, I can almost joke about it, but Sam’s jaw tightens and his eyes blaze. “Are you afraid of him?”
Such a care bear.
“No, not physically.”Mostly nois the truth, but I can’t let Sam hear that. “Mentally or socially maybe? Is that a thing? He knows my boss, and I don’t want people to think bad things about me. You know how this looks.”
