Page 34 of Extraction Play

Her entire childhood, Mom had hammered in the point—that Eva couldn’t get anything right, that she wasn’t pretty enough, that her outspokenness wouldn’t win her a husband. Well, Mom had predicted the future on that front because after five years, Jack had dumped her like hot garbage.

She sucked in another deep breath, trying to control her nerves. The image of Pixie at the boba place filtered into her brain: the bright, open expression, her genuine laughter, enhanced by the hazy halo of late night and interior lighting that had lent the space a dreamy buzz.

The first tendrils of warmth curled through her, her nerves settling for the first time since she started the drive. Something about that woman was pure magic to her system, and Eva wanted to soak it in for as long as possible. She wasn’t the type of person anyone picked for forever, but she’d take whatever brief moments she could get.

Let’s do this.

Eva pushed out of the car, the door creaking. When she stepped onto the front walkway of the two-story single house, she wrinkled her nose. All the little yellow and red marigolds she’d planted had already started to wither. Weeds were overtaking them, and the rest of her garden would be in the same shape. She finally looked at what had been her home, but the previous warmth and energy had vanished.

After Jack’s announcement, she’d realized even if she had stayed, she wouldn’t have felt welcome in this town. Not after all the hurt that had occurred here, after all she’d lost.

The question that left her with was where to go next?

She and Micah had been closer growing up, but they’d drifted when he’d returned home while she had stayed in Reno, only visiting on occasion. If she’d understood he’d been as miserable as she was, she would’ve dragged him out of there. However, if their parents had taught them anything, it was to fend for themselves.

Eva dipped her hand into her purse for the key but stilled. Jack had probably changed the locks, and she didn’t have the heart to find out. Instead, she rang the bell.

The heavy pound of footsteps reached her ears, and her shoulders started drawing up on instinct. The door swung open, and in themiddle of the frame stood a person she once thought she knew so well. Whenever a breakup occurred, it was like the fairy dust of the relationship that colored them in magic got blown away. Even when she and Jack had fought while they were together, she could still see those parts of him she loved.

However, the man who stood before her today looked tired.

He’d once been charming with sandy blond hair swept to the side, a lopsided grin, and similar meticulous care to his appearance that she put into hers. Now, the color of his hair was like dishwater, his grin nowhere in sight, and he’d missed a button on his button-down. A frown line dented his forehead, and his loafers looked more weathered than normal. All the attraction that had fueled her for years had reduced to nothing, and that was a small relief she could claim.

“I started packing away some of your stuff,” he said, not bothering with niceties.

She gritted her teeth. Guaranteed, he put things in some willy-nilly nonsensical order that would make her possessions harder to find.

“Most of the furniture is mine,” Jack said.

Eva lifted her hand to cut him off. “I just want my belongings. The house stuff I contributed on or we bought together can stay.” The unspoken was that she didn’t have anywhere to move bulky items regardless—no new house or even storage facility because that would require knowing where she was going to land. When she’d moved in with Jack, the house had been fully furnished, but she’d added her touches. Of course she’d take the paintings she’d had to fight with him to put up, a few of the older houseplants she’d hoped survived, and the rest she’d brought with her when she moved in. However, the other stuff? More cluttered memories of their time together she didn’t need.

“Going to let me in?” She lifted her brow, holding on to her resolve by a thread.

Jack huffed out a breath and stepped back. Eva walked through, doing her best to pretend he wasn’t there. She ignored the burn of his gaze at her back as she headed straight to the staircase. He’d probably ousted most of the stuff from what had been their shared bedroom, but she’d be going over it with a fine-tooth comb.

A few boxes sat outside the bedroom, and she peeked inside one. Her collections of hardbacks were crammed in, some bent at the sides. Her hands balled up on instinct. This would be a challenge from beginning to end, but the more time she spent inside the house, the more she realized she couldn’t have kept it anyway. No matter how much she’d tried to make her imprint here, this place had always belonged to him.

And just like the glitz had faded with him, it had also faded over the space that had once been her home.

She stepped into the bedroom, which was a mess. The bedsheets were rumpled, the bookshelves empty, since she’d owned most of the books there. Jack was one of those special flowers who “didn’t read.” Which should’ve been a red flag. All her tabletop gaming things—the bags of dice she hoarded, the DM’s screen, and books she’d kept on the shelf under her nightstand—had all vanished too, presumably into one of the boxes. When she opened the closet, a few of Sienna’s dresses hung next to hers, which lobbed a punch into her gut. Eva glanced around the room. At least Sienna hadn’t fully moved in yet.

Small blessings.

If she wasn’t living here full time yet, there might be a chance Eva could get out of this excursion without seeing her. Handling Jack and the house was bad enough, but if she added anything else to the stack, she’d topple over.

A heap of flattened boxes had been laid out on what used to be her side of the room. She’d brought some, but truthfully, she’d need more.Eva kneeled in front of her nightstand and opened the drawer. The sight of all her belongings glaring up at her made her eyes burn. Her throat tightened, and her vision glossed over as she reached to the side and folded up a box. Slowly but surely, she began to empty out the contents of the drawer.

She was uprooting her life in Reno, but she didn’t know where she’d be planted.

Hot tears dripped down her cheeks, and her shoulders shook, but she continued going through the motions of packing up. Her heart clenched hard, and each breath she took in was strained. This was what she’d needed to keep from Micah and Pixie. She didn’t want a soul to witness her breakdown.

If no one could love her at her best, they’d never want her like this.

Her fingers grew numb as she silently cried, trying not to make any noise to alert Jack. She needed this privacy right now, the quiet to try to place each individual item from decks of playing cards to the jewelry she’d kept in boxes in the upper drawer to the rose lotion she liked best that she’d been missing these past few weeks. Each item fit differently in the box as if she could somehow reconstruct pieces of her life in this cardboard frame.

She’s too difficult. It’ll be a wonder if she ever finds someone to love her.

Eva wasn’t supposed to overhear her mother—it had been a conversation in the other room—but sixteen and impressionable, she hadn’t been able to forget those words. When she and Jack had gotten together and their relationship was good, there had been this triumphant “fuck you” to her mom deep in her bones. However, when both Jack and Sienna left her, any composure she’d clung to had evaporated.

---