Page 46 of Against The Boards

Lisa came into the bedroom while I started throwing hockey jerseys and work dresses on the bed to sort through.

“Please, Rox,” she begged. “Let’s get back together.”

I shook my head. I folded up the clothes and took them into the living room. I threw them in the boxes as Benny walked back into the apartment. He eyed Lisa with a glare but then looked at me carefully. “What else do you need help with?” he asked.

“I think this might be it,” I admitted. I chewed my lip. “I don’t have a lot of stuff.”

“What about your jewelry?” Lisa asked.

I glared at her. “I don’t want anything you gave me. We’re done, Lisa.”

“Please, Rox, I’m sorry.”

Benny grabbed the last box. “You ready, baby?” he asked me, ignoring my crying ex-girlfriend.

I gave him a fake smile. He would pay for that later. “Yeah, babe.”

“Please, Rox, I’m so sorry. I want you back,” Lisa pleaded.

I sighed. “Lisa, you cheated on me. I’ll never go back to someone who did that to me. I moved on, and so should you.”

“So you’re never gonna come back home?”

“Philly’s my home now,” I told her.

That wasn’t a lie. Even though I was still living at my brother’s condo, Philly felt more like home to me in the last couple of weeks than when I had lived here.

Benny gave me a questioning look, but I shooed him away, and he went back down to the car. Lisa was still crying, and maybe it was cold of me, but I didn’t care.

I went to the jewelry box in the bedroom and pulled out a few pieces like the bi pride necklace Tristan gave me when I graduated from U of T and statement pieces I bought myself. Anything she gave me, I left for her.

I felt her eyes boring into my back while I dug around in the jewelry box. I didn’t understand why she wanted to get back together all of a sudden. She was the one who cheated on me and then kicked me out. She left me when she knew I couldn’t go home to my parents and my brother lived in a different country. That wasn’t something you did to someone you loved. Her texting me out of the blue last night that she missed me and then demanding I get my stuff didn’t make any sense. Nor did the waterworks she had going on. If she wanted me so badly, she wouldn’t have cheated on me in the first place.

I turned back around and saw her face stained with tears. I took a deep breath and tried to ignore her obvious play at my emotions.

“Lisa, why do you want me back?”

“Because I miss you,” she cried.

I raised an eyebrow. “Do you? Or do you just miss having someone to warm your bed? It doesn’t matter if it’s me or some other woman?”

She stared at me for a second, and then her eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Fuck you, Roxanne.”

“You cheated on me. You did this. Goodbye, Lisa. Have a nice life.”

“Are you really dating Benny?” she asked incredulously.

“He’s not who I thought he was,” I admitted. That was true.

“You hate him.”

I smirked. “Yeah, well, he’s fantastic in bed. Goodbye, Lisa.”

I walked out of the apartment for the last time, and I felt relieved. Like someone had lifted a tremendous weight from my shoulders. I didn’t think Lisa wanted me back; she just didn’t like to be alone. I had been heartbroken when she cheated on me but getting the rest of my stuff today felt like closing a door, like I could finally move on. I didn’t want to move back to St. Catharines; I was going to make Philly my home. I was on to a new chapter in my life.

I walked outside and found Benny leaning up against his SUV.

I glared at him. “Really, dude? You had to call me baby?”