Chapter 5

My friend Dixon showed up right then. "Brooks — here."

I took the papers from him. He gave me a strange look.

"Never seen someone this calm about a divorce before."

Dixon wasn't the type to pry. He left without another word.

Back upstairs, I knocked for a long time before Brittany opened the door. She was covered in marks again, barely able to keep her eyes open — clearly she hadn't slept.

She didn't bother explaining herself. She dropped onto the couch and was out before I could say anything.

Clothes were scattered all over the floor. A pair of underwear that wasn't my size lay among them.

I set the divorce papers on the table and cleaned the apartment. Once, twice, and then again. I'd already decided I was done with her — and yet something kept twisting in my chest, something that hurt more than it had any right to.

By the time I finished, Brittany had woken up.

I put the papers in front of her. She blinked at them, not quite understanding.

"Brooks? What... what is this?"

Her face went slightly pale. She didn't reach for them.

"You said you didn't mind. You said to treat it like I'd been with someone before we ever got together, right?"

She grabbed my wrist, panic in her eyes.

She was the one who didn't love me. And yet she was also the one who couldn't let go.

I felt nothing — no anger, nothing. If anything, I just felt tired of her.

But I was going to play this through to the end. So I pulled my hand away without any heat behind it.

"Don't panic. This isn't a real divorce. It's just a legal formality."

"What do you mean?"

I kept my voice steady. "I don't want people calling you names. If we're officially separated on paper, what you do on your own time isn't anyone else's business."

"Once you've had your closure, we'll remarry."

The way I said it — calm and gentle — finally got to her.

She walked into my arms, eyes red. "Brooks, you're the only person in this world who really loves me."

"I hate myself. Why can't I just let go of the past?"

She still had his smell on her. I couldn't help it — I stepped back.

Brittany flinched. I caught myself and reached over, tapping her nose lightly.

"It's nothing. I stood outside in the cold all night and I think I'm coming down with something. I don't want to get you sick."

"Come on. Sign it."

She didn't question my explanation. She signed with a smile.

The moment the pen lifted from the page, something in me finally unclenched.

I was done. Whatever came after, it would be without her.

I folded the papers away. Brittany, already moving on, reminded me one more time.

"Brooks, remember — when this is over, we go file together to make it official again."

I smiled. I said nothing.

Before she could ask again, her phone rang and took her somewhere else entirely. She lit up the way someone does at twenty, talking to their very first love — nervous and glowing and completely absorbed.

We were already divorced. Whatever she did now had nothing to do with me.

I went to my room and started packing. She talked on her phone; I sorted through my things.

Anything I couldn't take, I left. The expensive gifts she'd given me, I set aside to return.

Brittany never once looked my way. If she'd bothered to glance in for even a moment, she would have seen I was leaving for good.

She didn't. She got dressed and walked out, and she didn't come back.

The next day, my friend Dixon called.

"Brooks, you need to come. Brittany and Leonardo are having a wedding today."

"They want to make it official that fast."

"I'm going to have to skip it. I'm leaving the city tonight."

"What? Where are you going?"