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He held his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut like he was in pain.
At ared light, I touched his arm gently. "Hey, you okay?"
Todd reached for my hand. “I’m sorry, babe.”
He looked over at me with glassy eyes, a sad expression on his face.
"I love you, Lana. Please don’t give up on me. On us. I promise I’ll be better."
I blinked back sudden tears.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” I replied, squeezing his hand.
He slumped against the window, closing his eyes.
We drove the rest of the way in silence.
He'd been drinking more, becoming moodier and more unreliable. He started partying almost daily and I’d caught him lying to me on more than one occasion about where he was and who he’d been with.
It made it harder to keep trying with Todd, but I did anyway.
I kept thinking that any minute the fun-to-be-around Todd would appear again. The one I met at the nursing home. I just had to give him another chance.
It would have been easy enough to walk away if I hadn’t cared about him so much. But he’d made it easy to care in the beginning, and I kept clinging to that and the wonderful man I knew was in there somewhere.
Todd probably thought he loved me. I knew he believed it, but I was starting to think Todd’s one true love was himself.
In my heart, I knew Todd was just another link in the chain of bad men I had chosen. But even so, I desperately wanted to believe he was different.
13
DYLAN
Brent had setme up on a blind date. I finally agreed after he asked me for the fourth time. He’d been trying to get me out of my rut.
Little did he know, it wasn’t my ex-wife I was hung up on. It was my brother’s girlfriend.
Kristen was gorgeous, funny, and perfectly pleasant, but to be honest, I wasn't very invested. There was no real spark there.
Not like there had been with Lana.
I nodded and smiled as Kristen chatted, but I was waiting for our date to end.
I went to use the restroom and on my way back, I spotted a woman that looked like Lana, sitting at the bar. I stopped and stared because I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, dreaming up the woman that I wanted so badly.
Then I laughed to myself when I realized itwasLana. She was wearing a little black dress that hugged her every curve.
I could only see her back, but well…I would recognize that back from anywhere.
It looked like she was waiting for someone, glancing around and checking her phone periodically.
Then as if sensing me, she turned and zeroed in on where I was standing.
Our eyes met from across the crowded restaurant.
I lifted my hand in a wave and she smiled back, her eyes lighting up in recognition.
I assumed she was waiting for Todd. For his sake, I hoped he would show up tonight.
