#ROMANCE
#R18
#WEAKTOSTRONG
#SURVIVAL
#BETRAYAL
THE X GAME
As my foot froze on the brake. For a moment, I thought of turning the car around and pretending I had never come. But the bold silver letters across the glass door—MARY'S HEART Salon—were mine. I had fought for that sign, against my mother’s plans, against gossiping relatives who said “hairdressing is for dropouts.” I wasn’t about to let one man scare me off my own ground.
Richard_
Standing in front of my salon with a bunch of flowers, like some desperate scene out of a movie I didn’t buy tickets for. His shirt was too crisp, his smile too nervous. My first thought wasn’t even about him—it was why today? Why on the day I wanted to step into my new life did the ghost of my old one appear?
I grabbed my handbag, and stepped out as if my pulse wasn’t racing.
“Mary,” he said, his voice too soft for the noise of the city street.
“Richard.” I locked the car and walked straight past him.
“Wait,” he reached out, but I shifted my body just enough so his hand caught the air.
“I just wanted to congratulate you. The salon looks… beautiful. Just like you.”
I let out a laugh, sharp and quick.
“So flowers are supposed to make up for vanishing when I need you the most? You’re late, Richard. Three years late, not three days.”
He swallowed hard, holding the bouquet tighter. Passersby slowed down, curious at the little drama by my door. I hated that. My business was supposed to open with style, not spectacle.
“Mary, please,” he said.
“I made mistakes, but I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”
“And I haven’t stopped building a life without you,” I replied, pushing open the glass door.
Hilda_Green_Brown · LGBT+
