“I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him. Did Valerie have a birthmark on her cheek?”
“Yeah, why?”
“The voodoo doll did, too. I was never sure if she really had one, or if Kelsey had stabbed her face too many times.”
I covered my face in my hands and groaned, unsuccessfully trying to cover my laughter.
“Anyway, go on.”
Tessa took a deep breath and adjusted her body, staring up at the sky peeking through the trees. I did the same. The sky had darkened enough that the stars began to twinkle above us. They were alright in their grandiose canvas, but I found the view somewhat lacking that night compared to what was lying beside me.
“I haven’t told anybody this, so I’ll need you to keep it that way.” I sat up, reached over, grabbed her hand, and shook it firmly. “You are now sworn to silence.”
“Just say it.”
I settled back down. I knew that once I started talking, it would be hard to stop. There was just something about Tessa’s easy manner. And for a guy not used to talking about this at all, the idea of not stopping was terrifying.
“We had been dating for about five months or so,” I began. “I was young, an idiot, and all in. I had this plan for my life all figured out. I was going to have some big-shot career, get married to a hot girl, have the nice truck, the big vacations. All of it. We started dating, and she seemed to fit the mold.”
“Hold on.” Tessa held up her hand. “I’m putting together a puzzle named Logan. Weren’t you voted most likely to succeed in high school?”
I had been opening my mouth to say something else before her comment stunned me. “How’d you know that?”
“I remember random things sometimes.”
“Like how many moles I have on my abs?”
“Shut up.” She gave me a push, and I was grateful she couldn’t see my sloppy grin.
“It takes a long time to tell you a story,” I said.
“Sorry. Go on.”
“The mood is shot now, but anyway, I was a pre-med student, planning to become some sort of doctor. Now, if you had asked me which kind of doctor, I couldn’t have told you a thing. The deepest thought I had ever had about my career choice was the paycheck. Anyway, about two semesters in, I’m taking all kinds of horrible classes like genetics, and biochemistry, and biology, and I was drowning. I hated it all. I pushed through because my girlfriend kept bragging to her friends that I was going to be a doctor. And that required a white lab coat.”
“Doesn’t a mortician wear a white lab coat, too?”
I paused, biting back a smile before shaking my head. “Yes. It’s all very tragic.”
“Anyway, it was the anatomy and physiology class that nearly broke me. I hated all the classes but was trying to convince myself I’d love the actual career. Except, the classes kept getting worse. About that same time, a buddy of mine was finishing his basement and asked if I’d help him. So I did, and doing the work felt like such a relief to me. I’d only ever known my dad’s ‘farmer’ way of fixing stuff, which was either to throw some duct tape on it or hammer in a few nails. But my buddy taught me how to frame and drywall, and suddenly, I was watching how-to videos and building shelves and entertainment centers. Finally, there was something I could do that made sense. And when I was done, I had a finished product. I fell in love with the whole idea of building things. Houses, bookshelves, cabinets. Everything. A couple weeks later, I changed my major to construction management, switched out of my classes, and started doing well in school.”
“I love that,” she whispered.
“Anyway, back to Valerie. This is the part nobody knows. We’d been dating for about six months or so, and I took her to a nice restaurant one night and proposed.”
I stopped talking for a minute, suddenly lost in the memories of that night. I had been so ready. I had saved for months. We had been ring shopping once, just casual browsing, nothing serious, but she had fallen in love with this one-carat, princess-cut diamond. I took on a few extra side jobs building shelves and doing tile work for customers to pay for the ring. I remember Val had gotten upset with me a few times because I’d been pulling a lot of nights and weekends. But like an idiot, I smiled on the inside and couldn’t wait to surprise her with the diamond.
“She said no?” Tessa ventured softly.
I nodded. “She didn’t just say no. She took everything I believed about myself and our relationship and smashed it into the ground. She said I wasn’t marriage material. And that I hadn’t been truthful about who I was when we first got together. There was no way I was going to make enough for her needs by working construction. When she thought I was going to be a doctor, she’d been picking out baby names, but now, she told me that she had only wanted a good time. I was completely blindsided by her rejection. So, I get what you mean about losing trust in people.”
“People suck.”
“Yeah.”
“I had no idea.”
“That was the general idea. I was too mortified to let anybody know I had put my heart on the line like that and to have her basically laugh in my face. It was easier to tell everybody we broke up and leave it at that.”
