Page 1 of Make No Mistake

One

Almost six months.One hundred seventy-three days. Four thousand one hundred and fifty-two hours. I should be over it after fourteen million nine hundred forty-seven thousand and two hundred seconds, but apparently that’s not enough time for a heart that was shredded to pieces then stomped on to recover.

I should be done crying. I probably would be if I didn’t find a stupid meaning to every stupid day. It would have been our five year anniversary. If we had made it through last summer and one more semester, which I know we totally could have, we would’ve been the high school sweethearts that beat the odds.

Instead, Sean took an internship in Brussels. He left me for Belgium. A stupid internship in a stupid city.

Alright, it was a fantastic opportunity to intern at the United Nations headquarters in Europe. I would have taken it in a heartbeat too. But I wouldn’t have dumped him!

“Mac? I’m home!”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to dispel the tears and smeared mascara. When I entered the living room, my cousin, Aubrey, looked up.

“Oh no. What happened?”

Crap. I should have checked the mirror before coming out.

“Nothing happened.” That’s just it. Nothing. Today should have been something huge. A five year anniversary is no small feat for those lucky people that make it there. I wouldn’t know.

“So you look like a melting raccoon … why?” She set her books on the table and folded her arms across her chest.

Oh no. This was Serious Aubrey. Serious Aubrey didn’t let me cry or feed me bowls of ice cream like Sympathetic Aubrey. This one was direct and force-fed reality down my throat.

“I just saw the really sad puppy commercial. It gets me every time, you know that.”

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t in the mood for my tears or my jokes. “Mac, seriously. What’s going on?”

I flopped, quite ungracefully, onto our sofa. “Today would have been five years.” I closed my eyes and waited for her remarks about letting go, moving on, finding the next open window, or whatever. Instead I was greeted with silence. I peeked one eye open and looked at her. She actually looked sad.

“I’m sorry, Mac. That’s hard.”

“But?”

She shook her head and her auburn hair fell around her shoulders. “No buts this time. Even though it’s been five months ...”

“Five months and twenty days.”

She rolled her blue eyes. “It’s hard not to think about what could have been. I get that.”

“But?”

A pillow suddenly hit me in the face. “No buts! That sucks. After my afternoon class I’m going out with Carter and some people from his office. Do you want to come with? There’s a new guy that’s supposed to be really cute.” She tried to tempt me with her super sweet voice, but I knew better than to get set up.

“No thanks. I don’t think I have the same taste in men as Carter.” Another pillow hit me in the face. Where was she getting all of these?

“Liv told me, you dork!” The sofa shifted as she stood up. My eyes followed her as she went into the kitchen and grabbed a to-go box from the fridge.

“That’s my pad thai!” My stomach thought it would be worth the energy to get up and fight for it, but the rest of my body said nay.

She ignored me and continued moving around the kitchen, heating up the leftovers, pulling out a bag of mixed lettuce and dressing, then grabbing two plates. If I lifted my head I might be able to figure out what she was doing, but all the energy I had left was wasted on sobbing and cursing this day, so I let my eyes drift closed.

A sharp pain in my leg woke me up. “Ow! What was that for?”

Aubrey was carrying a plate in each hand. “Sit up. I made us lunch.”

With an admittedly dramatic sigh, I pulled myself up to a normal sitting position and reached for a plate. “Thanks, Bree.”

She made an agreeable sound while slurping a noodle, and nodded. “I know you’re having a bad day and you needed food, and you also need to get out and get your mind off things.”