McCarthy:Just admit it.
Delete, delete, delete.
McCarthy:I know you’re deleting these.
“Booty call!” Hannah crows. “This is a sign!”
“As if. McCarthy was all over my mom.”
“Or was your mom all over him?”
“It’s not fair for her to be that good-looking at her age,” I complain.
“To be fair, your mom wouldn’t have put up with this for so long.”
“Correction. They wouldn’t have put up with her. In the amount of time I had three boyfriends, she’s had over twenty. My mom dates for vibes. I date to find the man I want to enter into a lifelong partnership with and raise happy, emotionally intelligent children with. Joke’s on me.” I laugh desperately.
“Is she finally seeing the light?” Hannah raises her arms to the ceiling.
I look longingly at the door, hoping Nathan will come in with an apology, cupcakes, and flowers and tell me he made a mistake, that Johanna is gone and he wants to elope with me.
My phone beeps again with incoming messages.
“Aaaaand that didn’t take long at all.”
Nathan:Don’t ghost me.
Nathan:You better make sure you pay your half of the mortgage. You can’t just flake out because your feelings are hurt. We have a deal.
Nathan:I expect a little more gratitude for everything I’ve done for you.
Nathan:You have no right to treat me this way.
Hannah grabs me.
“You can’t seriously be about to pay Nathan sixteen hundred dollars after he cheated on you.”
“Of course not.” Eyes blurry, I read and reread his text messages. That bastard. He really doesn’t care about me. He was just using me this whole time.
“Who could have ever predicted?” Hannah says into her wineglass.
“I’ve already invested too much in this relationship for someone who doesn’t even respect me.” I sniffle. “I’ve been helping him pay his mortgage since he bought the house. I bought the living room furniture. I helped review his reports and create the graphics for his presentation so he got that promotion at work. I did his laundry and cleaned the bathroom. I did it because I thought he loved me and valued me. I thought we were a team.”
I hoist my slice of pizza. “No more! I am in my self-esteem era! Part of that town house is mine.”
13
JENNA
I’m a more hungover and less confident Jenna when I finally drag myself into the office the next day.
The excessive alcohol consumption and the extremely loud ticking of my biological clock are giving me a pounding headache.
Chugging water doesn’t help. Neither does reliving the death of the dream of my happily ever after. Was I too hasty? Maybe I should give Nathan another chance.
But not Andreas.
Or…him.
