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He-who-was-awful-at-dickdowns beams me a big smile. “I was just thinking about you.”

Liar.

“Mind if I stop by later today and pick up the rest of my stuff?”

Words form on my tongue, but my mouth just opens and closes like I’ve turned into a goldfish. Leah yells profanities in my ear because she realizes who I’ve run into, and I can’t string my thoughts together fast enough to make a decent snarky refusal.

“I can drop by after eight, if that works for you.”

“No, sorry.” Thank God I manage to rub two brain cells together. “I got rid of all your shit.”

He’s mad. His face always looks extra dumb when he’s angry. “What the hell, Mak? I said I would get it when I had the time.”

“But you never did. You just kept stringing me along about it and I told you I’m not a storage facility.”

I can tell he wants to yell at me, but doesn’t want to make a scene. Instead, he shakes his head like he’s super disappointed in my behavior. “That really sucks, Makayla. You know I’ve been collecting that stuff for years. Even before we got together. You know that collection was important to me.”

Guilt creeps in.

“Don’t you dare let him gaslight you, Mak. Fuck that trashy asshole.”

I’ve never been more grateful to have Leah on the phone than I am right now. Rolling my shoulders back, I look him straight in the eye and say, “If it was so important to you, you would have picked it all up months ago. I gave you plenty of chances, and you didn’t take a single one.” That goes for not just the glass collection, but everything in our relationship. “Snooze you lose, asshole.”

I shove my cart down the aisle and walk faster to get out of there.

He doesn’t follow. I didn’t expect him to, but a little piece of me is still worried he might try to chase me down in the parking lot or something.

“I’m so proud of you girl.” Leah’s voice sounds wonky in my ears. “You did great.”

It doesn’t feel that way. Guilt eats me up because maybe I should have texted him one last time to say if he didn’t get his stuff by the end of the day that I was going to destroy it. Or I could have just dropped it off at his house for him. Instead, I was vindictive and smashed his collection of glasses because I wanted to feel cathartic.

I was selfish and now I feel awful about it.

“Don’t you dare feel bad about smashing his shit,” Leah growls in my ear.

“I don’t.”

“Liar. I can practically feel your energy through the phone. You’ve gone all quiet and you, Mak, are anything but quiet. Don’t let him guilt you into thinking you’re the bad guy here. It’s glasses, for fuck’s sake. He’ll get over it.”

“Yeah.” I don’t have the energy to put any oomph in my response. “Listen, I gotta go check out now and don’t want to be rude to the cashier. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay. Love you, bye.”

“Love you too, bye.”

I’m not calling her back. I doubt I’ll be doing anything for the rest of the day until I have to go to work.

Mak: zero.

He-who-is-a-prick: one.

Chapter 15

Carson

“Bend your right leg and extend the left one behind you. Good, now place your hand on the arm of the couch. Juuust like that. Now push your butt out and arch your back. Little more. That’s it.” I snap a half dozen pictures before coming over to my client. “Can I fix your hair real quick?”

“Sure.”