Fucking everything.
Two more men come out of her bedroom down the hall, each carrying boxes.
Movers. They’re movers.
I march toward the bedroom. “Melanie!” I shout, my voice echoing way more than it should.
Trix reaches for my arm as I pass her. “Rob...”
I keep walking. I sidle past a man with a clipboard in the hall and enter the bedroom, my heart breaking when I see it’s just as bare as the rest of it. No bed. No dresser. Clothes and pillows and just fucking everything.
Gone.
She left.
She left?
Fucking bullshit.
“Hey,” I say to the man in the hall with the clipboard. “Where’s the woman who lives here?”
“I just put boxes on the truck, pal,” he says, not looking up.
“And where is the truck going?”
He shrugs.
I bite down hard.
“Rob,” Trix chirps from behind me. “We should probably go...”
“No,” I say, reaching into my pocket for my phone.
“I think she made up her mind.”
“No, she wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t just...”
“Leave without telling anyone she was going?”
I turn around to face Trix. Her head tilts. Her big eyes glisten with unfallen tears.
“We should go,” she says.
No.
Not fucking yet.
I call Melanie’s phone. I came here to talk to my wife, and goddammit, I will talk to my wife.
“Hey, you’ve reached Melanie—”
I hang up. I call again.
“Hey, you’ve—”
I hang up. I call again.
“Hey, yo—”
I hang up. I call again.
“Robbie,” Trix says. “Stop.”
“Hey—”
I hang up. I swipe open my contact book this time.
Trix eases forward. “Who are you calling now?” she asks.
“There’s no way she’s gone overnight,” I say, finding Drew’s number. “She’s still in Chicago somewhere — and I know exactly where she is.”
“How?”
I bring the phone to my ear. “Because she has nowhere else to go.”
After three rings, Drew answers.
“Hello?” he asks.
“Hey, Drew. It’s Robbie,” I say. “Is your sister home?”
There’s a short pause. “No?”
“Drew.”
“I’m not supposed to say anything,” he whispers.
“You’ve said all I need already. Thanks, man.”
“You’re welcome?”
I hang up. “She’s at her parents’ house,” I say.
Trix nods excitedly. “Okay, good.” Her brow furrows. “Should we go over there now?”
“No,” I say, glancing around. “Not yet. We need to be more delicate than that, I think.”
“How so?”
“Well, she’s acting out. Burning bridges. Losing all hope.” I nod. “At this point in the story it’s time for a grand gesture.”
“A what?”
“A grand gesture. You know, like an extreme act of love. Something over the top that gets her attention and makes her realize how much she wants me again.”
She frowns. “Is this a kissing book thing?”
I nod. “Leave it to me. I’ll handle it.”
“Wait, how?” she asks, skipping to keep up as we sidle past the movers in the hall again. “What are you going to do?”
I smirk at her.
She groans. “I hate when you do that.”
Thirty-Nine
Melanie
Derrick dropped to one knee. Cady gasped, her hand gently rising to her mouth in shock.
“Cady,” he said with a dozen roses in one hand and an open velvet box in the other. “I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, I just didn’t know it. I didn’t know how to express it, but I know now. I know how to make you happy, to honor and cherish you until the day I die, so... Cady Williams...” He extended his hand, bringing the bright, shining diamond even closer. “Be my wife. Marry me. Marry me and we’ll put all of this behind us.”
Cady stood still. She lowered her hand to her side, her chest quivering with anticipation deep in her gut.
“Are you serious?” she asked.
“Yes!” he said. “I want this more than anything else in the world.”
Cady rolled her eyes. “No,” she said, standing tall. “No, I will not marry you.”
Derrick blinked in shock. “You won’t?”
“Hell no. You’re a stupid, lying, manipulative bastard with a tiny pecker and you know what? I can do better. I don’t have to stand here and put up with your bullshit ever again for the rest of my life.”
She turned around, leaving the bastard on his knees.
“Wait, Cady!” Derrick shouted from the sidewalk. “I love you!”
Cady doesn’t look back. “I don’t care,” she said.
“But...” He shuffled to his feet. “I’m so hot!”
“So?”
“And I have tattoos!”
“Good for you.”
“Then, shouldn’t you forgive me?”
Cady rolled her eyes into oblivion. “Goodbye, Derrick.”
“Please! There must be something I can do!”
“Sure.” She spun around. “You can go die.”
Then, a shiny red sports car stopped at the crosswalk. The top was down, exposing the elegant stallion of a man in the driver’s seat. He was stunningly handsome and fashionable, the seams of his six-piece suit practically ripping apart around the meaty muscles of his torso and biceps.
The man smiled at Cady with a set of perfect white teeth. His golden quaff barely moved in the summer breeze as he raised a finger and beckoned her closer.
“Hey, baby,” he said. “You ready to go?”
Cady bit her bottom lip, oh-so-ready. “Yes,” she breathed as she hopped off the curb.
Traffic was blocked and people honked their horns and shouted, but Cady didn’t care. She was happy now. Happier than ever before. Happier than Derrick ever made her. Ever ever ever.
Derrick scoffed. “Who the fuck is this?!”
Cady threw open the passenger side door. “This is Renaldo,” she said. “And he’s a real man. A better man with a bank account and a yacht and a very, very large penis.”
Derrick gasped. “Larger than mine?”
“Way larger.”
And with that, Cady lowered herself into the car. She snuggled up beneath Renaldo’s thick arm as the drivers went wild, but they weren’t angry anymore. They clapped and honked in the name of true love, shouting You go girl! into the wind while Derrick probably fell to his knees and cried and died alone somewhere. Who knows? No one cared to check.
And Cady lived happily ever.
The doorbell rings downstairs. Again.
I ignore it, feeling annoyed that my latest attempt at Cady’s happy ending was once again
