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11 - Photograph

 “Megan, are you okay?”

 She didn’t look like it.

 “I’m fine,” she said, leaning back in her chair and running a hand through her hair.

 Pause.

 “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, unable to look at her any longer.

 “For what?”

 “Not calling. Being an idiot.”

 Pause again.

 “How’s India, Luke?”

 I looked up at her, narrowing my eyes. Her head was cocked to the side a little, her eyes wide like she wanted an answer. But I didn’t miss the way her arms were firmly crossed over her chest, her nostrils slightly flared.

 “Fine,” I mumbled.

 “Meet anyone interesting?”

 I clenched my jaw.

 “This is not going –“

 “Luke. Why are you really calling me?”

She never beat around the bush. Straight to the point, always. I used to like that about her. Heck, I used to like everything about her.

 I puffed out a breath and ran a hand through my hair. I didn’t really know how to say it.

 “Are you breaking up with me?”

 Her voice was devoid of any accusation, any hurt, any question. It was almost rhetoric.

 She was just asking, like she would ask me “How’s the weather down there?”

 I looked up at her, and I didn’t know what my face looked like.

 “Yeah.”

 She breathed in, really deep. Then she looked away from me, up to the left, and I saw her eyes glaze over in a rare moment of Megan vulnerability. She breathed in again and then looked at me again.

 “Is it because of someone else?”

 “No,” I said quickly.

 “Is it because you can be free for your...ah, pursuits? I know what you’re like, Luke. Even in the last two years I’ve had to work to keep you. Three weeks away from me and you’ve already gotten distracted.”

 That hurt a little. I frowned.

 “I’m not like anything, Megan. And I’m not bloody distracted, I’m just breaking up with you, plain and simple.”

 “Of course you’re like that, Luke,” she sneered. “You’re just like any other guy, aren’t you? Five months away from home and you don’t want to be fucking tied down.”

 I threw my hands up in frustration.

 “Megan, what –“

 “Shut up. I don’t want to hear it. I know you too well, Luke Waters. There is someone else. I know it.”

 And to my surprise, I didn’t try to argue with her.

 And to my even greater surprise, her expression softened a bit.

 “We’re breaking up. Fine. That’s...that’s okay. I mean, you and I both know it wasn’t really going anywhere.”

 I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck.

 “I’m sorry, Megs.”

 A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and she uncrossed her arms.