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“I think trouble found me instead,” he murmurs, his eyes never leaving my face.
I step away from them, determined to put space between us so I can figure out why the universe is hellbent on making me pay for every reckless decision I’ve ever made.
The most reckless of them all is following me and as I hear him call out my name, I have to decide if running away would make me look as crazy as I feel.
“What?” I shout, stopping short at the door. He’s already unknowingly chased me out of my grocery store. I refuse to let him have this restaurant too.
“I’m not following you. This place has the best food,” he offers, lifting the bag in his hand with a shrug.
“Itisthe best Italian spot in Boston,” I agree before shaking my head and frowning at him. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but Boston isn’t your home. It never has been.”
I’m too on edge, not far enough removed from my panic attack, to be in this situation. And if I don’t hurry, I’d be late getting the girls.
“I knew Boston once before,” he reminds me, and I hate how he can still rile me up like no one else has ever been able to. The calm and in control Sabrina that I’ve cultivated through the years is a distant memory in his presence.
“You knew me once before, too,” I remind him, hoping the comment stings. “But you don’t know me anymore. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to pick up my daughters.”
“I bet you’re a tremendous mother,” he offers as I step back against the door.
I stare at him, unsure of what response he wants from me, unable to give him anything.
“I made a lot of mistakes with you,Stellina.” He stares at the floor before meeting my gaze. “I wasn’t who you wanted me to be. But I am now.”
I want to roll my eyes, to hit him, to tell him to fuck off and to never contact me again. But I don’t. I offer him my apathy instead.
“In the words made famous by Professor Pugliesi, ‘I don’t care,’” I say, shoving through the door, prepared to never see him again.
Abraham could pretend that his words could rewrite the past and grant us a new beginning. He could pretend that he changed and that I was sitting around waiting for him all this time.
He doesn’t know.
I stopped waiting for him a long time ago.
Once upon a time, I fell in love with a man who wore many masks.
When it was time for him to stay, he left.
And he took his masks with him.
