The Flip Side of Heartbreak by Meg Bradley

Author:Meg Bradley [Bradley, Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

20

quinn

I roll out my shoulders as I stir the cool water and the orange juice concentrate in the pitcher. The tart liquid swirls around the wooden spoon like a small whirlpool. It’s not fresh-squeezed, but it’s all I had in my freezer since I haven’t made a grocery store run for the condo in weeks.

Thankfully, Nathan doesn’t seem picky when it comes to food. I figure the toaster waffles I’ve already plated and the sausage links currently sizzling in the pan will do the job.

It’s after nine but I don’t have the heart to wake him.

He was wrong. He doesn’t toss and turn in his sleep. The man is a freaking hibernating bear. Nothing would rouse him from his slumber. It wouldn’t have been an issue, but we’d ended the night curled in one another’s arms. His super heavy, super immovable arms.

I shake out my hands to bring some feeling back to them. When I woke up a half hour earlier, all of my limbs tingled from lack of circulation. Nathan’s a big guy and while snuggling with him was all kinds of amazing, next time I’ll need to be the one on top.

A shiver prickles the back of my neck.

There won’t be a next time. At least not for a really long time.

Right. I know deep down this is for the best, but cutting things short—suspending them, whatever it is we’re doing—will not be easy.

It’s just that I know what’s going to happen if we don’t take an intentional step back. We’ll both fall fast and hard, and then one day, one of us (my money’s on him) will wake up and realize we jumped from one relationship straight into another.

I get that he’s over his wife. She’s done a pretty decent job ensuring that outcome. But he had a whole life with her and it’s not like a few months’ separation is enough to remove those memories, those feelings, and the hope I’m sure he had for their shared future.

I do not want all of that to just transfer over to me.

I think things will be easier on my end. I was never in love with Kyle. Sure, my pride was bruised because being cheated on never feels good, but when I envisioned my future, Kyle was never a part of it.

Certainly not in the way I’ve already fit Nathan into it.

Lifting the spoon out of the glass pitcher, I drop it into the sink with a clatter. I can see the waves crashing along the beach out the window hanging above the metal basin. Seagulls weave in and out of patches of fog, only to nosedive and break the surface of the tumultuous whitecaps, hoping to find a meal swimming below.

Mornings here do something to my soul.

That vast, almost endless expanse of blue water makes me feel so small. Makes me realize I’m just a tiny piece of a bigger picture in the grand scheme of things.

It’s almost unfathomable that we can be so minute—so insignificant—and yet feel things so deeply.

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