Page 175 of Mr. Infuriating

I hated that he threw my words from the other night back at me.

“This hurts me, too, darlin’.”

So don’t do it!

But even as I thought it, I knew he was right. I would thank him some day.

Just not today.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

“Me, too.”

~~

I finished packing my toiletries, and he walked me to the door.

I wanted to make a dramatic exit, but it was somewhat hindered when I tried to maneuver the suitcases, booster seat, and bag of toys.

Gabe took the booster seat from me, then reached for the suitcase handles.

“Let me help you.”

And that’s all it took to make me start crying again.

****

Gabe

The night before, I’d laid in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Gretchen was back under my roof, so that brought me some comfort. But she wasn’t in my bed, hence the reason I’d been wide awake at three a.m.

I knew letting her go was the right thing to do, but my heart wasn’t happy about it.

No, more than my heart wasn’t happy. My soul felt like it was being crushed into a million pieces.

Still, it’d seemed like a sign that I was making the right decision when Henry called to tell me he’d got the part that morning and could be at Gretchen’s house later that day.

Now as she stood in front of me outside her car with tears streaming down her face, I didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Was I making a mistake?

I wiped her tears with my thumbs and whispered, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. You have no idea how sorry.”

She offered me a weak smile through watery eyes, and I repeated myself. “One day you’ll see we made the right decision.”

When she was with someone new.

I hated the idea more than I could even express.

I found myself continuing, “And I know you probably don’t want to be friends, but I’m hoping we can at least be friendlywhen you’re tutoring Brayden. And I’d love to be able to see Jake every now and then.”

“Of course we can be friendly.”

“Can I take you and Jake to dinner tonight?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, do you?”

“I mean, I don’t want to just disappear on him.”

That’d been another thing that had kept me up last night. The idea of Jake thinking I bailed on him really bothered me.

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