Member-only story
Playing the Good Girl
Oh, he was the mistake I would make again.
Heath came to Mom’s wake even though I told him he didn’t have to show up. When he called me a few days back, his voice had been heavy over the connection, and I could have almost imagined us sitting in old payphone stalls as we spoke. No matter how I tried to steel my heart towards him, there was no point. The ending between us hadn’t happened because of lack of feeling.
No, he had gotten another girl pregnant during one of our breaks. I had raged at him and wept such bitter tears — but now? I just felt numb. And of course he left me and went to her. What kind of man would he have been if he hadn’t?
But at the wake, when I caught sight of him standing beside his girlfriend with her pronounced baby bump, I still felt as if someone had kicked me in the gut. My friends looked at me as if they were deer caught in the headlights. I shook my head at them and tried to smile as if seeing Heath didn’t twist up something inside me.
I approached first, but it was Heath who drew me into a tight hug. I didn’t even return the embrace at first because I was so shocked to feel him against my body again. “I’m so sorry about Marla,” he said. “She was a great woman.”
I wouldn’t tell him how my mom cursed about him when she heard how things had ended…
