Page 147 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Don’t you think it’s weird that we haven’t finalized a date yet?” he asked. “Isn’t your family or Mandy asking you why we haven’t picked a date?”
I nodded. Of course they were. My family and friends were constantly asking me about a date. I had wanted to nail it down as soon as the ring was on my finger, but Brad wanted to wait. I had been the easygoing fiancée, allowing him time to decide when would work well for him and his out-of-town family.
“We aren’t getting married, Tiffany.”
The color drain from my face as it suddenly became hard as hell to breathe.
“What did you just say?” I asked, trying not to pant.
“We. Aren’t. Getting. Married,” he said, speaking each word slowly. “It’s over.”
I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. I knew things had been different during the past couple of weeks, but I had never expected this. I waited for him to tell me it was a joke.
“Did you hear me?” he asked, standing from the couch. I tried not to look at him, afraid that I would begin to sob.
“But, what’s wrong?” I finally spoke, my voice high-pitched and breaking.
He paced around the living room. I studied the look on his tan face. Unfortunately, I had seen it often. He was hiding something.
“It’s just not working, Tiffany,” he said. “Stop making this harder than it needs to be.”
I needed an answer. Just six months ago, he had proposed. Granted, he was drunk, and it was without a ring, but it still counted. I had made plans and scheduled a dress fitting. I was committed to the idea of being committed.
“You need to tell me why. I’m at least owed that,” I pleaded. “No. Don’t tell me. Just please just give me a chance to fix this. We can work through whatever it is.”
“I’m in love with Jessica,” he blurted out, each word stabbing me in the heart. Jessica. He had introduced her to me at the gym. She was about half my size, with double the tits and a tiny waist. She would intimidate the most confident girls in the room. At the time, I thought I was just nervous about being at the gym and meeting someone so gorgeous. I must have known deep down that something was going on between them. I hated myself for not saying something back then. What a joke I was.
“But…” I began to cry. Big, ugly, fat tears fell down my cheeks.
“She makes me feel good about myself,” Brad said. “I can go out with her in public and not worry about what negative thoughts people must be thinking. We have way more in common than you and I do. For starters, she actually takes care of herself.”
“Brad!” I yelled. “I’m trying! I will continue to try! Just give me more time.”
He finished his beer and set it down on the side table before walking up to me and bending down.
“She turns me on in ways that you never will,” he said, looking right into my eyes for the first time that evening. “There is nothing that you can ever do to compare to the things she does to me in bed. She doesn’t just lay there because she’s ‘too tired’ to change positions. It’s the best sex of my life.”
“I can change!” I didn’t want to let him go. I was willing to do anything to change his mind, even a few risqué things that he had brought up before. What the hell would I do without him? Where would I go?
Who would love me?
“I’m tired of being with an insecure, unattractive woman, Tiffany. I work too hard on my body and looks to be with someone like you. I deserve to be with someone fun and beautiful like Jessica. Being with you, and staying with you, was a huge mistake.”
Before I could respond to his harsh words, he stood up.
“Take care, Tiffany,” he said, walking out the door and out of my life.
I sat there for a while, in complete shock. “What the hell just happened?”
In a matter of a few minutes, I had lost my fiancé and the future I had been busy planning. The wedding, the house near the beach, our two kids. All of it was violently ripped from me in an instant.
What was I supposed to do with forever now? It was destroyed. Obliterated. Gone.
Not only that, but I had been blindsided by the fact that Brad was cheating on me with Miss Big Tits from the gym. I should have paid more attention. But then again, I was too caught up in planning the wedding to notice that he was canceling dates and staying late at the gym. I was planning our future life, while he was destroying it.
I was trapped in a nightmare that I couldn’t escape. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.
The past seven years and all the history we had together, was over just like that? No. No fucking way. I pressed my hands to my face and let out a muffled scream.
