The man stood in the middle of the road, watching as his girlfriend drove off. They had been together for nearly three years, and when he had finally proposed to her, she had stared at him in shock, got in her car, and left. He had chased her in his own car and eventually caught her out on a dead-end gravel road in the middle of nowhere. This led to a heated argument between them, and looking back, he still couldn't understand why she had gotten so upset over his proposal.
She had just left again, and this time he wasn't going to chase her. Instead, he stood in the middle of the road, getting soaked to the bone as the skies opened up and let loose with a brief downpour of rain. The land around here was so flat and barren that you could almost see for a hundred miles, and if she bothered to look in her rear view mirror she would be able to see him standing there, just watching.
He prayed that he would soon be able to see the glow of brake lights telling him that she had decided to come back. But she went on down the road without showing any signs of stopping, and he sighed, defeated. Her wheels just kept on turning down the road ahead; if it hurt her at all, she wasn't showing it.
He kept watching for a long time; kept looking for the slightest sign that she might miss what she had left behind. He realized there was nothing stopping her now; she could go do whatever she wanted and he wouldn't stop her. He couldn't stop her.
He was annoyed that she had to leave so quickly, though. He wasn't going to prevent her from leaving, and he knew that she wasn't going to stop, but did she have to go barreling out of here at sixty miles an hour? He'd settle for a slowdown. If she had left at thirty or forty miles an hour, at least that would have showed that she might be regretting her decision. But no, her fast speed showed that she had no qualms about leaving him.
He watched until she was just a tiny dot on the horizon, and then he shook his head. He got back into his own vehicle and started it, but he couldn't bring himself to leave this silent place just yet.
He frowned suddenly when he realized that he wasn't exactly sad that his now ex-girlfriend had left. He was upset that she rejected his proposal so bluntly, hurt that she had led him on for so long, annoyed that she left so fast, but he wasn't sad. He didn't feel like crying – he actually felt kind of free. Sure, he'd love to go punch out his hurt and anger, but it was also freeing that he could do whatever he wanted without having to worry about her approval.
He sat and pondered his lack of sadness for a while longer, and finally concluded that he was just in shock. He figured the tears would come later, when he was in bed or when he saw a couple that was acting all lovey–dovey.
He started the engine and was about to start driving when he heard the theme song from the TV show "Friends." He gave a start and then fished his phone out from his pants pocket. "Hi."
"Hey, stranger!"
The man couldn't help but grin when he heard the voice of his former girlfriend's cousin. "What's up?"
"Nothing but the sky," she answered cheerfully. "Oh, and I suppose the birds are up, too. And the power lines, planes..."
"I get the point," he replied, chuckling. She was probably the only person in the world who could make him smile after getting dumped by his longtime girlfriend. With that thought, a sudden realization came that made him wonder how he could have been so dense all these years.
"I thought you would," she answered cheekily. "No, really, I'm not calling for any specific reason. I just had time, and I felt like talking, so..."
"You had spare time?" he asked incredulously. She never seemed to have any free time.
"Yeah, I know, right? But I'm done studying, I don't have any dates, my friends are all out or in class...I have nothing to do."
He wondered what the odds were that she would have free time at the exact same time that he needed cheering up. He thought that it couldn't possibly be a mere coincidence. "Wow."
"Yep. So what's new with you? What are you up to?"
He debated about telling her about his breakup, and was about to just skip over it, but then he figured that everyone would hear about it soon enough. "Well, at the moment I'm sitting in my car on a long deserted gravel road."
"Why?"
"Why am I sitting in my car? Because–"
"No, not that, you doofus," she said exasperatedly. "Why are you on a long deserted gravel road?"
The man sighed. "Well, your cousin broke up with me and then drove away, so I followed her. Then we had a huge fight, which resulted in her leaving again, but this time I didn't follow her, so now I'm just trying to get my bearings back."
"What? Did you say that she broke up with you?"
He nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Yeah...right after I proposed to her."
He heard a sharp intake of breath. "You...what?"
"I proposed to her." Did I hear her voice crack on that last statement?
"Oh..." Her voice was just a faint whisper. "I didn't realize..."
"Realize what?"
"That you were...that you were going to get engaged."
"We aren't engaged," he reminded her. "She said no."
The person on the other end was silent for a moment, and then he swore he heard a murmured, "Thank goodness." Then, louder, she said, "Oh, no. I can't believe she said no. I'm sorry."
He sighed. "Thanks. I'll be okay...I think."
He heard a noise in the background, and then she said in a rush, "I'm sorry for cutting you off, but I have to go. I, uh, forgot that I'd said I'd study with a friend."
He frowned at this, but accepted it. "Okay. Talk to you later."
"Yeah, later."
Jim clicked off his phone and the realization that he'd had earlier came back to him. He didn't love Hallie Belden, as he'd thought he did.
He loved her cousin, Trixie.
Author's Notes
I don't own any of these characters, nor am I making any profit off of them.
This is another submission for CWE #3 on Jix. The picture that it's based on is #20. Also, the song that partially inspired this is Dierks Bentley's "Settle For A Slowdown."
Thanks so much to my editors! Pam, Jo, Joycey, and Jenny – you are all awesome!
Thanks for reading!
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