Candice

Ripped

I pull into my driveway after working 11 hours, my hands still raw from cleaning the entire house before work, and the thought of getting out of the car and going inside has me paralyzed. The lump in my throat swells and the tears welling up in my eyes stings my already raw eyes. In between the exhaustion of a day that starts at 5 a.m. and has finally ended at 1 a.m. my "husband" managed to find the time to accidentally send me a text that clearly wasn't meant for me, after he called to tell me that he should have a 4 course meal for dinner, and not home cooked pizzas. The phone call was beyond brutal, berating and just plain hateful. Then he hung up on me. When the notification popped up, I thought it would be the usual "im sorry, work was stressful" line. You can imagine my surprise to read "wish i was kissing you, too." Normally, I would have rationalized it and felt better. Not today, though. My face burned with embarrassment and disbelief. The text made zero sense to me. We hadn't even spoken today, outside of the hateful dinner issue. In that moment, I slumped to the floor of the employee bathroom and sobbed. He must have figured out his mistake, because his ringtone chimed over my sobs. As much as I couldn't stand even the thought of his voice, I answered. Sniffling, and still reeling. "What," I said undeniably crushed. " Oh, I was trying to talk text to you and it cut off before i could say sorry." his voice nervous and filled with deceit.