Page 57 of Kisses and Lies

“She will be now. I have steam I need to work off.” He takes the steps two at a time and disappears, leaving me standing in the foyer with my hands clenched as I look around for my things. Luckily for me, I never moved out of my house. What a mistake that would have been if I had.

But worse, what a mistake Marcus was.

While rushing around and grabbing my things, I hear a ding. Looking over to the countertop, I see his cell light up. For some reason he doesn’t have it locked, so I slide it open and up pops a girl’s name.

I gag, then throw his phone at the floor, hard enough that it shatters.

Fuck him and his cheating ass.

Picking up my bags, I walk to the door and step through, pushing it hard behind me so it slams. Again, fuck him and whatever he thinks.

My car is parked out the front where I left it when I arrived to break this nightmare off. I knew I’d have to make a quick getaway.

I need to get away from him.

He’s poison.

Toxic.

A virus that has inserted itself in my system and won’t leave, sucking me dry.

Now is my chance to extract that poison.

I have to for my own health.

For my own good.

Marcus Stone is not good for me, that much is obvious.

Throwing my bags in the car, I look back at his house, and when I look up, I see him standing on his balcony staring down at me. Marcus’ hands are on the railing, his eyes locked onto mine.

“Fuck you,” I say under my breath, as I walk around and get into my little red car.

The car creaks, and I wonder if it can hear my own heart doing the same.

The tears don’t come, not until I’m almost home.

I feel everything. Everything.

And I want the pain to go away, but I won’t allow it to.

I love a man who can’t love me back. Marcus never made me believe that he could love me. I knew this, but it didn’t stop me from falling in love with him anyway.

And fall I did.

My sister’s sitting on my front steps when I arrive back at my house. Kat stands when she sees me, and I walk to her falling into her arms.

“You did it?”

I don’t need to reply, she already knows. I manage to nod in her arms, and she squeezes me tighter. “Breaking your heart is the worst pain of all.”

“He never loved me,” I say, wiping my tears as I look up at her. “I knew it, but I stayed anyway. Hoping maybe it was possible.”

“Yes. But, did you love yourself with him?”

That’s the tricky part isn’t it? Did I?

I was breaking when I met him, and I broke even more each day thereafter. Marcus didn’t get the best of me, he got the broken part of me, and I did nothing to repair that.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rochelle

Marcus makes no attempt to see me. None at all. I didn’t really expect him to, but as the weeks pass and I don’t hear from him, I wonder if he even thinks of me, or if it’s just my broken heart hoping maybe he does.

My soul’s crushed, just as much as my heart was when I left his house.

I return to work and life goes back to where it was. Before my grandparents’ death. Before meeting him.

I start to smile again, which is nice. It takes time, but eventually it comes, even though it’s painfully slow. When I think of those whom I loved and lost, I don’t break down at the drop of a hat anymore. Now, I smile and try to remember the good, and not get hung up with the bad. The bad is not a good place for me to dwell in.

Kat asked to move in with me. Her lease was up on her place, and she had been over at my house every day with Annabelle anyway. I was more than happy for her to move in. The company’s nice.

Kat started dating.

I don’t.

I won’t.

Annabelle is my companion when Kat goes out, and thank God for my beautiful, toothy niece. She makes me smile on days when I’m not sure I can, or perhaps the truth is I don’t want to.

“You need to date,” Kat says, smiling as she slides on a red dress. “Get dressed, you’re coming with me.”

“Nope. No way,” I reply while shaking my head and sitting my ass on the couch.

“Oh yes you are. Now get up.”

“I don’t want to do that speed date thing you do.”

“This isn’t that. I’m going out with a few friends to a club. You. Are. Coming.”

“Nope,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You haven’t heard from Marcus since you broke up. It’s been almost two months, Roch. Get dressed, it’s time for another man to play with that heart of yours.”

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