Love Hurts

Sitting in her car in the parking of the grocery store she dumbly looks at the message.  Reading it again.  A feeling of utter dread settled in her stomach.

“It is over.  Don’t bother contacting me.”   She read it over and over until it became blurry.  She realized she was silently crying.  She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, a tinny taste of blood circled in her mouth.

In a haze, she drives to her townhouse.  Leaving the groceries in the car she runs to the front door.  Shaky hands, she fumbles with the key in the lock.  Inside there is an air of stillness.  A cold fear disembowels her stomach.  Her hope that it was not true Derek left her, instantly dispelled.

His motorbike helmet is not on the dining room table.  It always caused arguments.

Running to the bedroom she throws open the cupboard doors.  His space is empty.  “Please, please, no”.  Sobbing she blindly stumbles to the bathroom.  All his toiletries are gone.  She sinks to the floor, folding into a heap of misery.

Hours later she gets up from the floor.  Looked at herself in the mirror.  Hair in a mess.  Eyes  swollen.  Red nose.  A thumping headache threatened to tear her skull apart.

She washes her face.  Going to bed she turns to his empty pillow.  His smell is still on it.  She fell asleep curling into a ball holding his pillow.