“And what are you going to do, Vivienne?” His lips purse, eyes going wide and innocent. “Run back to your millionaire fiancé?”
I step on his toes,hard, the hardest I’ve ever stepped on anyone’s toes, and revel in the sound of his cries as he hunches over in pain.
“Fuck you, Arjun,” I dig a finger in the center of hislargeforehead. “I hope women realize what an undatable man you are and stay at arm’s length…Oh wait! They already do!”
For good measure, I step on his other foot, enjoying the sound of his pain. No snarky comebacks. No derogatory words. I really should have done this way earlier.
“And be careful where you go for treatment.” I purposely shove my hip into his shoulder. “I have connections in the medical field.”
With one last kick to the back of his knee, Arjun stumbles, plopping straight on hissmallass. He looks up at me, stunned, but I don’t pay him any mind. I grab my belongings from my desk and make my way out of the lab.
The long locker-lined hallway stretches before me, and I walk with my head held high, one foot in front of the other as I channel my inner Diva Goose. My untied trench coat trails somewhere behind me, adding to the confidence—until I step outside and theDecember air finally hits.
I’ll never understand why Arjun despises me as much as he does, but it’s a lesson learned. Some people hate with no apparent reason, simply because they have nothing better to do.
That knowledge used to eat me up inside, but I don’t care anymore. I’ve finally stood up to him, and if he dares try anything on me ever again, I won’t be afraid to put him in his place.
But as good as that all felt, it didn’t patch the broken pieces of my heart—or the fact that I was on my way home to isolate myself from the rest of the world, once again.
———
Somewhere along my commute, I realized that keeping my emotions buried is what got me in this situation in the first place. People don’t get anywhere in life doing it all alone. Humans really were social animals. And that’s how I find myself standing in front of Phil and Margaret’s brownstone.
Within seconds of knocking, I’m greeted with bright eyes and an even wider smile. She, too, hasn’t seen me in a while. But her excitement fades, softening when she really takes me in.
“Oh, Vivienne. What’s wrong?” Margaret pulls me into her arms, squeezing tight.
I lose myself in her warmth, realizing this is what I need all along—hugs and comfort from those I love.
“I don’t know where it all went wrong.” My voice cracks when I finally say it out loud.
The tears I’d been holding back make their way out one by one, soaking my face and, most notably, her fuzzy sweatshirt. And if it weren’t for her little shuffle that brings us inside thewarmthof her home, I’m certain those salty streams would be frozen by now.
Somewhere between my sadness, the kitchen, and the backyard, we find ourselves on her back porch, staring at the falling snowflakes with a cup of hot cocoa in hand.
The thick mittens, hat, and scarf—wrapped so tightly they might suffocate me—are also Margaret’s addition. Apparently, I’m not dressed appropriately enough for the weather, and I think she’s right.
“Is this about the boy?” Margaret asks, looking over at me with soft eyes.
My head bows low, and I watch the steam rising from the brown liquid—its surface rippling when a single tear falls in.
She’s asking the question like she already knows the answer, and I take a sip of my drink in the name of avoidance. It’s hot—I knew that from the looks of it—but I’ve already been burned once this past week, once more wasn’t going to do much.
However, Margaret is never one to take silence as an appropriate response.
“You know what I think is funny?” she says, looking over at me intently despite my efforts to avoid her eyes. “You tried so hard to prove that this guy was nothing more than an acquaintance,and look at the two of you now. So madly in love but too damn afraid to face it head-on.”
My gaze drifts around the backyard, cloaked in a glistening sheet of snow that hides the grass and crowns the wooden fence. The bed that once held Phil’s multicolored eruption of flowers is nowhere to be seen, as well.
Love.
The word leaves her lips so easily, but was it even that to begin with?
While we, in some ways, confessed it to each other that night in the hotel room, it all feels convoluted.
The rom-coms made it as clear as day: people who truly loved each other stuck together through thick and thin. Nate wouldn’t even tell me what was going through his mind. He just up and left, as if none of what we’d gone through mattered at all.
“He won’t even talk to me, so you can get the thoughts of a reunion out of your head,” I mumble under my breath.
