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“So she probably stayed with you for all these years because of the conversation she had with her dad,” Nick said softly. “That’s messed up.”
“I know. That’s how I saw it too, but Shelby didn’t see it that way.”
I thought about how convinced she was that we shouldn’t give up. She tried to get me to see reason, to stay and fight for what we had, but I didn’t want to. She made me say that to her out loud, and it killed me to hurt her in that way, but she refused to listen.
I’d had to be mean to make her accept that I was serious . . .
• • •
“I think we should break up,” I’d said, not knowing any other way to word it so she’d believe me. I hadn’t wanted there to be any doubt about my intentions, so I’d added, “I want to break up.”
“You’re serious? Frank, no. No, we’re not breaking up.” Her voice quavered as her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s the right thing, Shelby,” I insisted, refusing to change my mind. I’d lived this way for far too long. I couldn’t do it a second longer without feeling like I was going to stop breathing. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“No. I stood by you when no one else did.”
“I know,” I said, feeling my heart break a little at how much I was hurting her.
“I gave you everything.”
“I know.”
“I moved here for you,” she reminded me, and I winced a little, knowing that I’d never asked her to.
“I know,” I repeated.
“Stop agreeing with me!” she yelled before changing course. “You don’t want to work on things, try to fix them? We shouldn’t just quit.”
“I don’t want to keep hurting you, Shelby.” I hated saying anything that would cause her further pain, but she wouldn’t listen and I needed this to end. “But I don’t think this is fixable.”
She rose to her feet, her face turned to stone. “It’s not fixable because you don’t want to fix it. Everything is fixable if both people want to work at it. You’re not even trying. You have to want to try.”
“I don’t,” I said, snapping her last thread of hope
and wrecking her composure.
Stunned, she stared at me with wide eyes, her mouth agape. “You don’t even want to try?”
“No.”
• • •
“Wow. Like I said, harsh,” Ryan said again after I’d finished.
“I know,” I admitted, refusing to feel bad about it anymore. I was done feeling bad.
Nick circled his hand in the air, impatient all of a sudden. “When can we get to the good stuff?”
“What the hell are you babbling about?” I asked with a groan.
Ryan chuckled. “You know he’s talking about Claudia.”
I shot them both a look that told them to mind their own damn business when it came to her, even though I knew they wouldn’t. Now that I was officially single and on the market, these knuckleheads would meddle in my social life until that status changed.
“Can’t a guy be single for ten minutes before you two set him up?” I said, not meaning the words at all. I still hadn’t heard from Claudia, and it drove me crazy. She hadn’t responded to a single text message or voice mail, and hadn’t set foot in the bar since she found out about Shelby.
“Oh, so you don’t mind if I ask her out then, right?” Ryan asked, sounding serious.
