Page 52 of Level Me Up

“Oh.”

“Morgan. What’s going on?”

With a sigh, because we might as well get into this now, I say, “I saw the picture.”

His eyebrows knit together and then his face falls. “Oh yeah, that. Well, that was nothing.”

“It was nothing? It looked like more than nothing to me.”

“I didn’t know Kelsey was going to post it. I should have asked her not to.”

So, he does know her? “Kelsey? You know her?”

He cringes a little and says, “Yes.” He pauses. “She’s an ex.”

Heat is starting to creep up my body. “Did you cheat on me Dex?” I ask surprisingly calm given how I was feeling. My emotions and thoughts start to go haywire.

“Absolutely not, Morgan,” he says quickly.

Ok, there it was. He said he didn’t cheat on me. Do I believe him?

“God, Morgan. Why would I cheat on you? I already dated her and broke up with her once. I wouldn’t do it again.” He looks appalled that I would ask such a thing.

Now I’m pissed. “Well, excuse me. A freaking photo of some chick kissing my boyfriend shows up on Facebook while he is out doing God-knows-what in another state, and I can’t question him about it?” The pitch of my voice starts to rise.

“Doing God-knows-what? You knew exactly what I was doing, Morgan. I was there for a tournament. What do you think I do when I travel? Go and party the whole time?” Now he’s getting mad.

“Actually, I don’t know what you do because I’m here when you’re there! I’m not your keeper. I don’t know what you do in your downtime,” I say snottily.

“Seriously. Morgan, you need to get over the traveling thing. I have to travel. It’s non-negotiable. I know you have a fear of being left behind, but come on. I have to travel, and if you aren’t going to go with me, then you need to deal with it.”

“I do not have a fear of being left behind, Dex, and I can’t travel with you. For one,” I hold up a finger, “I have a real job. And two,” I hold up another, “I’d be bored out of my freaking mind.” I shout this at him. I know I’m being mean, but I don’t care. He is too.

His eyes go hard and cold when he says, “So now I find out that my girlfriend doesn’t consider my job a real job. Nice, Morgan. Really nice. You could have mentioned this before I took you to meet my parents.”

I flinch at this. I don’t really think his job isn’t real, I’m just really pissed at him right now. Drawing in a slow and steady breath, I say, “Dex. I don’t think this is working.”

“What isn’t working, Morgan?”

“Us. You and me.”

He clenches his jaw and stares at me with something unreadable in his eyes.

The way he looks at me makes me nervous so I quickly add, “We moved way too fast. I wasn’t ready for this kind of relationship, and I can’t handle your schedule. I’m sorry, but I think we need to stop seeing each other.”

Tears form in my eyes while I say the last part. I don’t want this to be the last time I see him, but I can’t keep going in this direction.

Hurt flashes in his eyes before it’s replaced with anger. “Fine, Morgan. You’ve obviously thought about this. I can see now that the night was going to end this way, whether or not I told you the truth about Kelsey. Glad to see honesty is so important to you.” He spits out the last sentence as he walks to the door.

Tears stream down my face in silence. I’m letting him walk away.

I have to let him walk away.

“This is bullshit Morgan, and you know it,” he says bitterly.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. It’s part statement, but more of a plea.

He shoves a hand through his hair then opens the door. He looks at me one last time with slumped shoulders and dull eyes and says, “Yeah. Me too.” He steps out of the apartment and closes the door behind him.

The tears become less silent after that.

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