My cellphone buzzes and I pull it out of my purse. I look down on the pondering of you message with a smile on my face and shortly reply again.

I used to be going to message you however didn’t need to interrupt.

“Uh-oh, should you’re smiling like that, it have to be your Prince Charming,” Katie says with greater than a touch of humor. I shove my cellphone again in my purse and carry each shoulders.

“Perhaps it was, possibly it wasn’t.” I like how candy and flirty he’s, and the way his messages carry me a burst of power.

“I like this shade on you,” Katie says.

I am sporting a costume that matches my blue eyes, and my lengthy wavy blonde hair is pulled up severely away from my face. “Thanks,” I say, loving how particular the praise is. She’s considerate, and I like that.

“So how have you ever been?” I ask. “How is the brand new place going? Has the shininess worn off?”

She shrugs. “It has and it hasn’t. However I need to discuss you and Clifton.” There’s a giddy gleefulness in her voice that has me smiling.

I am so grateful for our friendship.

“You look so radiant, and I believe it is due to Clifton.” She gently digs her elbow into my aspect as we proceed strolling via the park, alternating time within the solar and shade because the bushes towering overhead sway gently within the wind. I lick my ice cream cone savoring the candy and nutty taste as I take into consideration find out how to reply.

“Perhaps,” I say, attempting to overlook the tough elements of our relationship. Generally life is not honest. He makes me so completely happy. However life conspires to maintain us aside.

“And is Sterling leaving you alone now?” She glances up at me as we stroll.

“Truly, that is one of many issues I needed to speak to you about,” I say. “I filed for a protecting order in opposition to him.” I am happy with myself for taking that step to guard my very own security.

“Oh, wow! I’m glad you filed.” We stroll as much as one other stone bench – one which overlooks a reasonably pond affected by geese and geese paddling round – and sit down. “He must know that you simply’re severe and he cannot mess with you anymore.”

That is what any sane individual would suppose. I am not so certain anymore that Sterling is sane.

I sigh and shake my head. “It is only a piece of paper, Katie. It isn’t like he is immediately going to alter his conduct or depart me alone.”

“Properly, yeah, he is obsessive about you. However now that you’ve got began this course of, each time he messes with you, you may file a report and finally possibly the cops can do one thing.” She focuses on her cotton sweet ice cream for a second as I stare on the fairly white geese on the pond, questioning why such a ravishing animal chooses violence. I swear all geese are possessed by the satan himself.

Katie places her arm round me and hugs me. “You deserve higher,” she says between licks of her cone. “Like Clifton.”

I can not assist however smile at how neatly she’d slipped that within the dialog. No less than she’s not maintaining how she feels about him a secret. I will all the time know the place she stands in regard to him.

“Thanks.” And that is a part of the rationale why I like hanging out together with her and speaking out my life; she has a method of placing issues into perspective. “I simply do not perceive why he will not depart me alone and let me go. We did not even have that a lot of a connection.”

However Katie shakes her head like I’ve bought all of it unsuitable. “You did not really feel that a lot of a connection. He is aware of he misplaced one thing wonderful. He misplaced you and he cannot stand it. He tried to play a recreation along with your coronary heart as a result of he could not management you the best way he needed and it backfired, and now he would not know what to do.” She lets out a decent snort and I do know she’s proper. “You beat him at his personal manipulative recreation, and I am prepared to guess that is by no means occurred to him earlier than.”

I shake my head, frightened that she’s the one who’s not understanding. “I used to be by no means manipulative with him, simply sincere and open.”

She pats my again with one hand. “I wasn’t attempting to say that you simply have been manipulative, simply that you simply beat him at a recreation he tried to play.” As she takes my hand and squeezes it, I angle my physique towards hers so our legs kind an arrow pointing to the evil geese.

“So how are issues with you and Clifton? Not the floor reply, an actual reply.”

I can’t hold a smile off my face or cease the sigh of reduction I really feel that we’re performed discussing Sterling. I simply need to overlook he exists without end.

“Issues are pretty much as good as they are often. It’s sophisticated; we’re not alleged to see each other, however it’s so laborious. I can’t keep away from him, you already know?” I really feel helpless as I converse. I’ve been puzzling over our scenario however can’t appear to discover a sleek answer that does not finish in ache or lack of one thing essential.

I really feel heat and fuzzy when pondering of Clifton, however that’s not sufficient.

“He appears like a keeper, Em,” Katie says as we end our cones. “I would not let him get away if I have been you.”

That is simply it. I need to hold him, however I do not see a sleek method out of our scenario irrespective of how a lot I give it some thought, or how a lot sleep I lose over the less-than-ideal choices I see.

I hint my decrease lip with my tongue earlier than talking. “I do not need to let him get away, however it’s sophisticated.”

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