A Girl's Guide to Being Jilted | ✓

10 | In Which They Bond Over Death

After a delicious stack of blueberry pancakes and a long talk with one of my favorite people in the world, I winded up sitting on the back steps of my house feeling more empty than when I’d got here.

The sun was setting a few miles away and gave the sky a beautiful pink tinge. I drew the sleeves of my jacket to cover my hands and folded them on my lap.

The cool air and the fast approach of dusk did not help my loneliness. On a whim, I fished out my phone and opened the camera app. After focusing on the point where the orange globe dipped into the earth I took the picture and opened Instagram.

I posted the picture and captioned with a sunset emoji. When I was done I wandered into my feed. My post about lies and heartbreak caught my eye, it had gotten a couple of positive responses but I didn’t care about any of those, my eyes were glued to something else.

Staring at me on my profile picture was a photo of me and Antonio I took in the car right after he popped the question. It showed me in a yellow t-shirt with Mickey and Minnie on it showing off the huge rock on my finger and grinning like an idiot while Antonio kissed me on the cheek.

My eyes zoomed in on the ring and I remembered it was sitting at the bottom of my suitcase as useless as both the person that gave it to me and the empty promises he spouted.

Shaking my head, I quickly changed the photo to that of a random picture of a field of sunflowers.

That was step two in my ongoing mission to purge the asshole from my life. Step one had been deleting his message.

I let out a deep sigh and just as I was about to head back inside my phone buzzed with an incoming video call.

Debra’s name flashed and reminded me of how I had been ignoring her calls and recent messages.

Except for a one word replies that were few and far between, we hadn’t talked since the wedding.

I knew she meant well but try as I might I just couldn’t bring myself to talk to her. The shame and humiliation I had faced in her presence were a sharp deterrent whenever I even considered opening up.

But I couldn’t let her keep calling like this all the time. I had to let her know that the only way I would heal was if I had the space and solitude to do that.

But I don’t want to talk to her.

I considered the conundrum for a few more seconds before I slid the answer button and positioned the phone away from me so they could see my face.

The camera spun around a bit before it focused on Debra’s shocked face.

“Oh my God, she answered, Hanna!” Debra squealed over her shoulder then focused her warm brown eyes on the screen. “Hi there stranger. Is there no reception in Michigan? I’ve been calling and sending texts, have you not been getting them?”

Before I could respond the image blurred and then Hanna’s green eyes and blonde hair was all I could see.

“Hi! Oh thank God you’re alive, for a second I was sure that the alligators got you.”

“Alligators? Really?”

“Of course, that was the only plausible explanation to why you couldn’t communicate with us.”

As I was dealing with the sudden onslaught of guilt Debra joined Hanna.

“Moving on from reptiles, we saw your Instagram post. Does it mean you’re doing better?” Debra asked, adjusting her rimless glasses. The floral print of her blouse looked especially bright under the florescent lights of the office in the background.