week since I heard from the man who was supposed to, without saying it out loud, love me. Shit, I thought I was in love with him. It made me even more of a moron than I probably actually am, and now he is making a fool of me.
And I am not going down without a fight. I’ll take my swing and maybe fulfill my promise of cutting his balls off.
So here I am, at Forrest’s front door. My heart is in my throat, the sparks of anger flying from the tips of my fingers to my toes.
I knock, dread filling me to the brim, almost at a nauseous level. It takes a minute or two, but then his front door opens, revealing him.
“Penelope, what are you doing here?” Forrest says with a start, clearly not expecting me at all.
He looks outside and around as if trying to make sure no one sees me enter.
What the hell? My heart slams into my chest wall. Is this how far we’ve sunk? Back to the fuck buddy days?
“You haven’t returned my calls in days …” I start, not even sure what to say now that I’m actually here.
He’s been ignoring my efforts to reach out after we admitted we had feelings for each other. After saying he wanted to take my kids on a vacation or buy them birthday presents.
“Yeah, and?” His eyes are shifty like he’s wasting time talking to me right now.
Inside, I want to die. Not only did I seek him out, but now he’s thoroughly embarrassing me.
“You’re a fucking coward,” I spit, wanting to claw his eyes out I’m so ashamed.
This man made me fall in love with him, and now he won’t even look me in the eyes.
“Forrest, I have something for you!” A voice yells from inside the house.
I freeze, every drop of blood in my body going ice cold. That is a female voice. In his house. When he hasn’t returned my calls in days. I swallow the urge to cry and push past him, because I have a right to see the woman who he’s cheating with.
Cheat … what a funny word. We hadn’t even spoken about being exclusive … I bet that will be his excuse when I confront him in five seconds.
I skid to a stop just inside his living room, my eyes blinking once, and then twice. “Wha … what are you doing here?”
Ryan, Presley’s best friend from New York, is sitting on Forrest’s couch in a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt … visibly wearing no bra underneath. A laptop is perched in her lap, and from the containers of takeout food on the coffee table, I can tell she’s been here a while.
“Hey, Penelope, good to see you!” Her face lights up, and I want to double over and hurl up the contents of my stomach on the carpet.
A week ago, Forrest Nash all but told me he wanted to spend his life with me. And now I find him in his home, with another woman … one he’s admitted he thinks is sexy.
Instead of answering her, I stomp back to Forrest, grab his elbow, and drag him to his kitchen.
Once we’re standing next to the refrigerator, I lay into him.
“What the hell is going on? Is this why you haven’t called me in a week? You have Ryan in here after professing to me that you want to take my kids to Disney World? You’re pathetic. And don’t even have the balls to call this off to my face. You ghosted me, just like a millennial asshole like you would do. God, I’m so fucking stupid.”
“Is that what you think?” He’s callous, barely even looking in my direction as a muscle twitches in his jaw.
“Tell me what I’m supposed to think, Forrest!” I whisper-yell since Ryan is only feet away.
His face is impassive, and those blue eyes won’t even focus fully on me. “I guess you just have to assume what you already do. That we’re fucking.”
It feels like someone just took a hatchet to my heart, whacking it away piece by piece. And there he stands, the man who I’ve irrationally fallen in love with, not saying anything to dissuade me from the notion that he flew in a girl for the weekend. Sour spit begins to pool in my cheeks, and I know I’m going to be sick if I don’t get out of here.
I gave my heart to someone once, and he took it