Post by Pen McCarthy on Jun 16, 2021 23:21:38 GMT
She’d hoped to get out of there sooner, but her trip down memory lane was proving to be far harder than she anticipated. One would think after being shut out for a whole year, that leaving would be easy. But apparently leaving the one you cared so deeply for, with every fiber of your being was not so simple.
Pen had tried to give Nate one more shot, one more gentle nudge in hopes he’d let her in that head of his, one more attempt to try and get things back to the way they used to be. He couldn’t fault her for trying, and lord knew that everyone else knew how much she’d tried. Another dismissal at an attempt at date night, the same excuse of “I’m busy with this case, you know how it is.” And she did, she knew the long hours and time that went into cases, but it was becoming too much. It’d been the last straw.
Over the last year, she’d watched Nate become a person she didn’t even recognize and it killed her inside that he refused to talk about what happened or see someone that could help. Eventually, enough became enough.
She’d rented a storage unit and had gotten up early that day to get a head start on packing. It’d taken several weeks of careful planning, but she’d managed to pull it off. She finally had a day where Nate was working late and she had the day off. The night before she’d gotten the boxes and hid them in the trunk of her car. When Nate got up and left for work that morning, she’d followed suit and got to her own work.
Erasing herself from a place she thought she’d be in forever. Turns out forever didn’t actually exist.
She boxed up her side of the office, moved what furniture that was hers that she could, boxed up her various coffee mugs with the smart ass sayings, massive cooking pots, the hideous pea-green coffee table that she’d gotten at a thrift store for fifteen bucks that had coffee and beer stains on it, all got loaded up into the rental truck. Taking only what was hers, and leaving behind the things that had been theirs.
It was well past dark when she was packing up the last box. All that was left was herself, her messenger bag, and the box of miscellaneous things. She’d felt herself growing numb when she started packing, but there was that painful ache in the center of her chest, and she found herself fighting back tears at various parts of the day. She refused to let them fall, or let herself cry. He didn’t deserve them after the year of treatment she had to go through. Yet, as she stared down at the framed photograph in her hand, it was becoming harder and harder to fight those tears.
The image was simple, but there was so much joy and love behind the glass. It’d been taken during Mardi Gras, roughly a year after they started dating when they’d gone back to New Orleans so Nate could meet Mama. She’d been sitting across his lap, both decked out in mardi gras beads and ridiculous sunglasses. Penny’s arms had been loosely around his neck, while Nate was practically beaming, and oozing that cheeky charm he’d always had, while Penny had been kissing his cheek. Her thumb ran over the glass that was over Nate’s face while she sat on the edge of the bed. Her dark mass of curls framed her face while her head was bowed, and she wanted nothing more than to scream and shout, and beg for the person in the picture frame to come back and replace the husk he’d become. She wanted her Nate back. Not the stranger that had taken over.
Soon the stranger wouldn’t be a problem. She was leaving. All she had to do was put the picture down, grab her box and bag and leave. It was as easy as that, but it was also the scariest thing she’d ever done, and the woman had diffused bombs.
She was lost in the void of past memories that she hadn’t realized the front door was being unlocked, and that her plan to be gone before he got home had failed.
@nate
Pen had tried to give Nate one more shot, one more gentle nudge in hopes he’d let her in that head of his, one more attempt to try and get things back to the way they used to be. He couldn’t fault her for trying, and lord knew that everyone else knew how much she’d tried. Another dismissal at an attempt at date night, the same excuse of “I’m busy with this case, you know how it is.” And she did, she knew the long hours and time that went into cases, but it was becoming too much. It’d been the last straw.
Over the last year, she’d watched Nate become a person she didn’t even recognize and it killed her inside that he refused to talk about what happened or see someone that could help. Eventually, enough became enough.
She’d rented a storage unit and had gotten up early that day to get a head start on packing. It’d taken several weeks of careful planning, but she’d managed to pull it off. She finally had a day where Nate was working late and she had the day off. The night before she’d gotten the boxes and hid them in the trunk of her car. When Nate got up and left for work that morning, she’d followed suit and got to her own work.
Erasing herself from a place she thought she’d be in forever. Turns out forever didn’t actually exist.
She boxed up her side of the office, moved what furniture that was hers that she could, boxed up her various coffee mugs with the smart ass sayings, massive cooking pots, the hideous pea-green coffee table that she’d gotten at a thrift store for fifteen bucks that had coffee and beer stains on it, all got loaded up into the rental truck. Taking only what was hers, and leaving behind the things that had been theirs.
It was well past dark when she was packing up the last box. All that was left was herself, her messenger bag, and the box of miscellaneous things. She’d felt herself growing numb when she started packing, but there was that painful ache in the center of her chest, and she found herself fighting back tears at various parts of the day. She refused to let them fall, or let herself cry. He didn’t deserve them after the year of treatment she had to go through. Yet, as she stared down at the framed photograph in her hand, it was becoming harder and harder to fight those tears.
The image was simple, but there was so much joy and love behind the glass. It’d been taken during Mardi Gras, roughly a year after they started dating when they’d gone back to New Orleans so Nate could meet Mama. She’d been sitting across his lap, both decked out in mardi gras beads and ridiculous sunglasses. Penny’s arms had been loosely around his neck, while Nate was practically beaming, and oozing that cheeky charm he’d always had, while Penny had been kissing his cheek. Her thumb ran over the glass that was over Nate’s face while she sat on the edge of the bed. Her dark mass of curls framed her face while her head was bowed, and she wanted nothing more than to scream and shout, and beg for the person in the picture frame to come back and replace the husk he’d become. She wanted her Nate back. Not the stranger that had taken over.
Soon the stranger wouldn’t be a problem. She was leaving. All she had to do was put the picture down, grab her box and bag and leave. It was as easy as that, but it was also the scariest thing she’d ever done, and the woman had diffused bombs.
She was lost in the void of past memories that she hadn’t realized the front door was being unlocked, and that her plan to be gone before he got home had failed.
@nate
