Page 232 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions
Did you forget that I know you?
He’s not going to stick around.
Andyou’ll come crying back to me soon enough.
You’re pitiful, George. You and I both know that.
And then, a few days later.
Brendon
I need to speak to you when you’re back in office, Monday.
Pretending he’d never sent the above nasty text messages at all.
Brendon
I have a question for you about the design you completed before you left. The Donaldson’s have asked for a few revisions that I need to go over with you before I meet with them on Tuesday.
Most of the things Brendon had said were commonplace. He often tried to make me feel small. And though this was my first time outright antagonizing him—nothing he’d texted me had been surprising or new.
He’d never been good with boundaries.
He’d never been kind.
He enjoyed seeking me out when I least expected it.
Got a sick kick out of knocking me to my knees with a few, well-planned words.
He knew he had me on the hook—like Alex had said he did.
Only…that apparently wasn’t the case anymore.
A week ago, I’d be tied up in knots over this, choking on so much emotion I’d never be able to detangle it. Sick to my stomach. Quaking. Bile climbing up my throat. But that was a week ago. This was now. And for the first time inyears,seeing Brendon’s name pop up on my phone didn’t fill me with icy dread.
I felt no longing for a life I didn’t have.
I felt no fondness.
I felt no anger, no mourning, nogrief.
No fear. No apprehension. No anxiety.
There was simply…
Nothing.
Nothing.
Huh.
I set my phone down on my lap, at a loss for words. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew why things were different. I’d admitted as much to my mother—twice now—once before the wedding, and once after, when I’d said goodbye and she’d told me to be honest.
But even with that encouragement I hadn’t been able to force the words free. Not when Alex had been so impossibly handsome, his dark hair dripping, his pale eyes lost. He’d needed me to chase him. He’d needed me to take the lead like I had that night in the bathroom.
I hadn’t.
Hadn’t thought I wasallowed.
