AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen?”
He gave me a stern look. “You could say that,” he said. He took off his work clothes and changed into his sweats to be more comfortable. I was even more confused when he put his sneakers on.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going for a run.” He turned and looked at me. “Alone, preferably.” He sounded so cold and distant. I know we don’t know each other super well, but I’ve never seen him act like this, especially toward me.
“What hap—” Before I could finish speaking, he was out the door.
What the hell just happened? I couldn’t wrap my head around how he looked at me or the way he talked to me. Maybe he just needed some space from a stressful day at work. I figured maybe dinner might help. Even though it was early, I started heating it up and setting the table. It couldn’t take him that long, right?
Wrong. Two and a half hours later, Link came walking in. He looked startled to see me still sitting there. After the surprised look faded, the anger and coldness returned.
“I said I didn’t want to talk. What are you not understanding?” he said coldly.
I still didn’t know what was wrong, but now I’m angry at how he’s treating me. I looked right at him and made sure he was looking me in the eye.
“Actually, no, you didn’t. You acted like I had some kind of disease and pushed away from me, and you’ve barely said anything before just leaving. Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are you going to make me guess?” I thought using the words he used on me before would change the mood. I thought wrong.
He sat down and started eating the cold food with a shit-eating grin. “Oh, I’d love to see you guess.” He gave an almost evil laugh; one I’d never heard.
“Link that was rhetorical. I’m not playing a guessing game. What is going on?”
He looked at me and kept shoving the cold, soggy food into his mouth. I almost didn’t think he was going to answer me but he did.
“So, the week after your birthday, huh?”
“What about it?” I was racking my brain as to what he could be talking about, and then it hit me. Callie never answered me. I ran to my phone and saw that my last text meant for Callie went to him. “Shit,” I said aloud. “Link, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
He put his hand up. “Save it. I don’t want to hear your bullshit. Were you even going to tell me? Were you even going to leave a note for me? Anything?”
I looked at him in disbelief. “Are you being fucking serious right now?”
He just stared at me without saying a word, so I continued.
“Of course, I would have told you Link. I was going to talk to you tonight.”
He gestured toward the plate in front of him. “So that’s what this shitty dinner is? A goodbye dinner?”
My eyes went wide, in disbelief. I couldn’t believe Link was talking to me like this. I definitely didn’t care for this version of Link at all. I don’t get mad easily, but I could feel myself becoming flushed from anger and embarrassment. I stood up in anger.
“Yeah, Link, I spent all morning and afternoon purposely making you a shitty ass dinner just to say goodbye. You caught me.”
Now it was his eyes that went wide. I don’t think he was expecting me to react that way.
“Well, you certainly weren’t being honest with me, that’s for sure.”
“How could you say that? You didn’t even give me five seconds to talk when you got home. And in case you missed the sarcasm, I’ll help you out. No, this wasn’t a goodbye dinner. My birthday isn’t for almost another month and a half. I was trying to do something nice for my boyfriend. I never meant to text that to you. I would never tell you in that way. I wanted to talk to you about it over dinner. I was excited, but my excitement is long gone now, in case you were wondering.”
I started to clean up but then I slammed the plate back down. “Link, this isn’t a new development; you always knew I wasn’t staying forever, and I never told you I was. I never lied to you. I have been so torn about starting this relationship with you because I knew this would happen. This is exactly what I was talking about. I have been so fucking torn between being here and going home, and I was partially staying because of you. I was giving us time to figure this out.” I was becoming winded.
His voice seemed a little calmer now, but he looked down at his plate, moving his “shitty” food around.
“But you are leaving? And you will forget all about me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I walked over and sat next to him and grabbed the hand that was pushing around his food. “What makes you think I would just leave and not look back?”
He looked at me with sad eyes. “Because everyone leaves. They never choose me.”
