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He licked his lips and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "I should have tried harder."
"Yeah, just a bit," I said sourly. "So, you were leaving?"
"Uh, I guess. If that's what you really want?" He smiled as if he really thought he stood a chance of convincing me not to throw his cheating ass out the door.
"It is," I said firmly, before I could change my mind. "It really is."
His face fell again. "Okay then, I guess this is it." He didn't move.
I pointed. "The door is that way."
"Oh, yeah. Right." He picked up a couple of bags, grabbed the handle of his suitcase and trudged toward the door.
I watched his back until he closed the door behind himself.
Only then, I noticed his phone on the hall table beside mine. I hurried to pick it up and reached for the door handle. Before I turned it, I switched on his phone and quickly scanned his contacts.
There. I picked up a pen and scribbled down a number on the notepad I used as a shopping list. What can I say, I like paper lists.
I turned off Kris' phone and opened the door to see him standing outside. Without a word, I handed him his phone, and closed and locked the door.
I leaned my back against it for a moment and sucked in a few breaths. I couldn't get my head around the fact it was over. Just like that. Two years gone, as if it meant nothing at all.
I pushed off the door and opened the hall cupboard. His ridiculous dinosaur costume still hung inside.
With no hint of remorse, whatsoever, I slid it off the hanger and carried it over to the window. I slid it open and shivered in the sudden blast of an autumn breeze.
Two floors down, Kris dragged his suitcase over to his old, beaten up car. It was parked beside my older, even more beaten up car.
He opened the back and threw in his bags. He hauled his suitcase in beside them and closed the door with a thud.
A very final sounding thud.
He turned to look up at the window. He looked hopeful again, then confused.
I whipped the dinosaur costume out the window and held it by its oversized head.
He put up a hand as though he could stop me, or catch T-Rex on his way down.
The wind whipped at the costume and threatened to tear it out of my hands. I waited for a minute, until it dropped, then let the costume go.
It fluttered like a giant leaf, all the way down to the footpath. There, it landed with more grace than the average falling dinosaur, and lay flat on the ground like Brandi's bra had.
I closed the window.
As satisfying as it might be to watch Kris scurry after his costume, I had a phone call to make.
CHAPTER 2
CHASE
Sweat trickled down my chest and over my flat stomach. Some people find sweating disgusting, but me— I loved it. The slicker I was, the harder I'd worked.
Ever since I was a kid, my dad taught me the importance of putting in a good day's work.
"Kid," he'd say, "there's no point doing a thing unless you're gonna give it your all. Don't go doing it half-assed."
Then my mother would glare and tell him off for saying 'ass,' although she agreed with the sentiment.
