Endings

[Candy Hart]

About three years ago…

What happened that day couldn’t really be called a break-up. Candy reminded herself for the umpteenth time that they’d never actually said anything to make it official, never applied labels. It’d been her call as much as his on that. They had both opted for the ‘spend time with you when I can and enjoy it’ approach. Neither had dropped the serious ‘L’ word to intrude on whatever it was they’d found with one another. And now—whatever it was—was over.

It was true that they both had complications in their lives that kept them busy, kept them apart. But the b.s. line he fed her about ‘drifting apart’ was just that—b.s.. She’d scoff at him, called him on it.

“You don’t want me around, fine. But don’t feed me f*ing lines.”

“I’m doing it for your safety.”

It was an overused line, in books, in movies, in reality—but f* he meant it. And she didn’t argue the point… so that was that.

Now she was putting what little she owned into a duffle and skipping town. It was a punk move and she knew it, but she’d rationalized that she’d put herself out there enough. She didn’t need to hang around to experience those awkward moments should they unexpectedly run into each other.

Candy checked her gun, thinking about Jesse. At least my last boyfriend had the decency to give me a reason to kill him… She shook the thought off, reminding herself again that Jay hadn’t been her ‘boyfriend’ officially. Whatever. It was time to move on. There were jobs waiting, leads she hadn’t followed due to time and distance… now that didn’t need to be a concern.

She was a free agent, completely unfettered.

Maybe she’d even start feeling good about that… eventually.