Page 10 of Rekindled

He was a gentleman during our breakup. Kai moved his belongings out of the apartment we shared when I told him I couldn't just be his girlfriend anymore. Andthat?Thatpissed me off. I remember it like it happened yesterday, when he returned to get the rest of his things.

I was in the kitchen, waiting for him to gather the last of his stuff. He left all the furniture we'd purchased together, only using boxes to pack important items like his workout equipment, clothes, and framed RIAA platinum and gold plaques.

When he'd taped the last box closed, he set it down beside the front door then turned to look my way.

I swallowed hard, trying my best to swallow back the cry threatening to pour out of me. I dreaded the next day. Waking up alone, not feeling his body-heat next to me in bed.

It seems he noticed the hurt because he took large steps toward the kitchen, coiling me in his arms and crushing his lips against mine with no words spoken. Kai lifted me off my feet and carried me to the bedroom. Peeled off my clothes and his too, and I allowed him to spread my legs for the last time and to slide in as we'd practiced for three years.

I was a ball of emotions our last time together. The moment poignant. We'd started our relationship with sex and were concluding it by making love. It was the most spiritual act I think we'd ever performed in our relationship. The understanding that the climaxing we experienced at the same time would be our last together. Tears slid down my cheeks at the thought of him sharing this part of him with someone new. How lucky she'd be if she coveted his heart, too.

Before he left the next morning, and for good, he whispered I love you on my lips and exited the bedroom without looking back.

The breakup wasn't ugly, but it fell short compared to the beauty of our relationship. His ease with exiting my life, just like that, angered me hours after he left our apartment.

Kai made me foster almost a hate for him after we ended things. And I couldn't understand how I could harbor such negative feelings for a man whom I still loved so much.

I shook my head and pressed my palms to my face to ground myself.

Why was I thinking so much about Kai?

Because Colorado was the destination for the holidays. A place we visited often with friends and on our own. We made wonderful memories together there. Happy ones, always. And this year I'd be there as a single woman.

That was okay. I planned to make this holiday weekend one to remember, even if it meant playing third wheel with a broken heart.

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