Page 5 of Unwrapping His Gift
“But she doesn’t even have,” I watch as both girls step out of the shop and the door closes behind them. “My number…”
3
DAISY
“A water leak at your apartment?”I ask as I walk quickly through the brisk night beside Marissa. “So that didn’t really happen, right?”
“Are you kidding?” She laughs. “I came to get you out of there and away from that guy. Who was he, by the way?”
“Ugh,” I sigh. “My ex from high school.”
“You’re kidding,” she gasps. “Come on, I’m parked over here.”
“Nope, not kidding. And somehow he ended up playing sexy-Santa at our office Christmas party tonight.”
“Wow. And you guys must have had a bad breakup or something, right? I saw the way you made a mad dash for the stairwell, practically tearing up on the way out.”
“Well…I wouldn’t call it a breakup,” I reply, as we hop in Marissa’s pickup. It always cracks me up how such a small girl can drive such an enormous truck. “But I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”
“Oh, come on, girl,” Marissa says, pressing me as she pulls out and starts heading in the direction of my apartment. “This is just too crazy of a situation for younotto tell me.”
I mean, she is right. But that doesn’t make it any easier to get into, especially right after running into Craig. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, I feel like it would be easier talking to her about it if I hadn’t just seen him.
“Okay fine,” I say as she drives. “I told you about how my dad died when I was thirteen. So I guess you could say I had ‘daddy issues’for a while after that. And Craig was the first guy who really made me feel safe.”
“And then he cheated on you!” Marissa suggests.
“No!” I reply quickly. “No, Craig isn’t that kind of guy.”
“Well, the girls back at the office seem to like him, that’s for sure.”
I think back to Jasmine on his lap, giggling and loving every second of it, and for some reason, a tinge of jealousy ignites inside me, pinching at my heart. I haven’t seen Craig in five years. Why should I be jealous?
“Well, he definitely did something to piss you off,” Marissa replies. “I saw the way you reacted when you saw him. The way you stormed out of there like he was a grenade about to explode.”
“Yes, yes,” I say quickly. “Hediddo something, but it wasn’t cheating on me.”
“Okay, what then?”
We’re nearly back to my apartment now, and I’m doing the best I can to simply describe everything that went down between Craig and me without actually reliving it or replaying it in my mind – and I’m failing miserably.
The emotions are coming back, rising up like a thousand balloons inside me. I do my best to push them back down so I can continue the story.
“Well, he invited me to prom–”
“Terrible!” Marissa jokes. She can tell all this is upsetting me, so she’s doing her best to lighten the mood. Just another reason I love her so much as a friend. She really knows how to read the room.
“It wasn’tthat,” I laugh. “I said yes to going to prom. I was nervous, but all excited of course. I had my dress and was all ready to go, but when the big day rolled around, Craig completely ghosted me.”
Marissa gasps as she pulls into the lot of my apartment building. “He did not!”
“He sure did.” I nod. “Not only that, but he didn’t just ghost me, he completely vanished. Word is he moved with his family or something, but he never texted, never let me know where he went or what happened. I never even heard from him again until I just ran into him tonight.”
Marissa usually has a witty remark or comeback for everything, but I can see even she’s a bit taken aback with this one.
“Wow,” she says simply. “That is…”
“Crazy?” I suggest, pushing open my door. “Yeah, I know.”