After She Said Yes. Kaya Gravitter

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СКАЧАТЬ dripping from his lips. Whenever he would say a vowel, it sounded similar to a French melody in your ear. His words were soft, but with a strong undertone. Aurora thought he had a lovely accent when he spoke.

      “I am fine,” Aurora said. “How are you?”

      “I am good,” Melih said. “I’m on my lunch break now.” He was a successful petroleum engineer.

      “Oh, nice. Me too.” She said as she stared at her small bottle of nutritional protein she had been sipping on since the morning.

      “Dat is good. I am sorry for vhat Gannon did, but I have to say, I'm not surprised he did it.”

      “That doesn't make me feel better.”

      “It really upset me the way I saw Gannon treat you at your house that night you vere going to play guitar for us,” Melih said. “I am sure you remember.”

      “Unfortunately, yes, I do.” Aurora sighed.

      What Melih said reminded Aurora of that night. She had tried to get everyone to snap their fingers to the same beat, but it was a struggle for everyone to get the beat down.

      “Aurora, you’re horrible. Just stop,” Gannon said bluntly. Everyone stared at Gannon. The room became quiet.

      “But I just want everyone to –” Aurora started, her voice barely a whisper.

      Gannon cut her off, “Aurora, don’t make me repeat myself. Just stop.”

      Aurora inhaled a big gulp. A tear fell down Aurora’s face and she felt the hair rise on her arm.

      Everyone urged her to keep going, but she was already too embarrassed.

      She swallowed her pain and tears like she always did from Gannon.

      Melih continued the phone conversation, “Vell, before that, he was so focused on the girls arriving, as vell.” Aurora rolled her eyes

      Melih continued, “He kept telling me to keep calling the girls because he was eager for them to arrive.” Aurora recalled that one of the girls was Shazzy.

      “Well,” Aurora said. “That makes sense.”

      “How is dat?”

      “Well, my mom always says, ‘love is blind, but the neighbors aren’t,’” Aurora said. “I finally know what she means.”

      “I guess so.”

      “Yeah.”

      “I have to tell you some-ting,” Melih said. “I vanted to tell you for a vhile.”

      "What's that, Melih?"

      Aurora's heart started to beat fast. She thought Gannon had done something else. She felt a knot in her stomach.

      Tiffany knocked on Aurora’s office door. “Ms. Tousey, you have a work lunch to get to.”

      “Vhat?” Melih said.

      “Oh, I am sorry!” Aurora said. “I have to go. I am late for a meeting. Talk later?”

      “Okay, dhen,” Melih said.

      --

      She expected that Melih would tell her something horrible. Though, Aurora thought it was hard to top all of the things Gannon had already done. She assumed Gannon had been cheating on her for a while, and Melih would break the news to her. Aurora wasn’t sure why she cared so much. Do I enjoy this pain?I don’t understand.

      Aurora wanted to forget about Gannon, but she knew she would have to go through with the divorce eventually. She knew she couldn’t go back to Gannon. The divorce wouldn’t be too hard on legal terms because they got a prenuptial agreement before the wedding. Gannon was from old southern money and Aurora was from a working-class family. Though Aurora didn’t want his money, she signed it to prove to him and his family that she loved him for him.

      Chapter 7

      Aurora started to move on with her life and forget about Gannon. She was still staying with Tessa. Aurora would spend most nights reading by herself or watching romantic comedies on Netflix with Tessa. She had seen every single one, even the one-star movies. She was trying to distract herself as best as she could. She wanted to message her friend Melih to see what he wanted to tell her, but she didn’t want to pry or annoy him. She also realized that if it was any information about Gannon cheating, it would only make things worse and all of her progress would be purposeless.

      Aurora had not been out in weeks since she found Gannon with Shazzy, until one afternoon when Tessa sent a text to Aurora while Aurora was at her desk editing an article for her magazine. She kept staring at her protein shake on her desk and forcing herself to drink it. I am so sick of the taste of this, she thought as she swallowed down the lukewarm butter pecan-flavored drink. She heard her phone ding.

      "Hey, you want to go out tonight?" Tessa said.

      "No, not really…"

      Aurora thought about how she had been sulking for months and wanted to dress up and feel pretty again. What do I have to lose?

      Aurora took another sip of her protein shake.

      Aurora hesitated, "You know what, yeah, let's go out, but I want to remind you that I cannot drink alcohol because the doctor said it does not mix well with my anxiety medicine."

      The day went on, and Aurora kept thinking about how ugly she was. She wasn’t confident at all. Gannon had made her feel like she was so ugly and fat. She thought since she saw herself that way, the rest of the world did too.

      Aurora went to the bathroom later that day after her lunch break. The tiles on the wall were black, but the lighting was very bright. While was washing her hands in the sink, she looked at her face closely in the mirror. She then pulled back her cheeks. Wow. These bright lights in here hide no flaws. She let out a large sigh.

      She stared at the bags under her eyes. She got depressed about how thin she was. Why did I let a man do this to me? She then unbuttoned her suit coat and could see her ribs through her shirt. She started to cry. I do not even know who I am looking at anymore. Who am I? What have I become? She thought she was seeing a skeleton in the mirror. She immediately regretted telling Tessa she wanted to go out with her that night. She first grabbed some tissues to dry her tears.

      Aurora called Tessa while she was still in the bathroom, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

      “Tessa.”

      “Yes, Aurora?”

      “I don’t think tonight is good for me,” Aurora said.

      “No way!” Tessa said. “You said you were free tonight! You told me yesterday."

       Crap.

      “Uh.” Aurora said. “I forgot I have a business meeting tonight.” She looked at the coffee stain on her shirt in the mirror.

      “Dude, СКАЧАТЬ