“Try harder. My back is starting to hurt.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“From carrying you. I pay for almost all of our meals out,” she said.
“I always tell you I can’t afford to go to the restaurants you like anymore. I offer to cook for you. You insist on paying and act like it’s no big deal.”
She got up and tossed the covers back at me. “It’s not a big deal when it comes to the money. It’s the fact that doing it doesn’t bother you.”
“Are you serious? Are we living in the eighteen hundreds?”
She was standing naked and confident in front of my dresser mirror, brushing her long hair. “I have to go.”
She went into the bathroom and started the shower. I followed her in and hopped up on the counter to talk to her through the shower curtain.
“We’ve been together for a long time, Laura.”
“I know, and I love you. But things aren’t moving forward for us anymore.”
I agreed with her but stayed quiet.
“And…” she said.
“And what?”
“I had a spark with someone at my work.”
“What in the world is a spark, Laura?”
“A connection. You know what a spark is.”
I really didn’t. “Are you cheating on me?”
She tore the shower curtain open and scowled. “Of course not. I’ve always been honest with you.”
“Who is it?” I said.
“Another surgeon.”
“Of course. Which one?” I knew a lot of the people she worked with.
“Tom.” She blinked, expressionless.
“Really? Tom? He’s like four inches shorter than you and how many years older… and he has no hair.”
She shrugged. “We have a lot in common. Don’t be so shallow.”
“Outside of the fact that you make good money and enjoy cutting people open, what else do you have in common with him?”
Wrapped in a towel, Laura, who I had been with for seven years, broke up with me by simply saying, “We haven’t really been a couple for a long time, Lucian. This will be like cutting out that fattening donut you have once a month.”
She compared our relationship to a fucking donut. Or maybe she was comparing me to a fucking donut.
“A donut?”
She nodded. “A donut.” She pecked me on the lips. “Good-bye. I hope we can always be friends.”
Not likely.
