She couldn’t believe what was happening right before her eyes, under her watch. Was this really her Nate? No, he wasn’t the one, right? With tears already clouding her eyes, she watched as Lancy smiled and nodded her head, and Nate slipped the ring into her long and slender finger as they kissed lovingly. It ached, she wanted to bring her heart out for a few minutes to have a taste of what being heartless felt like. “Nate…” she whispered as her tears rolled down her cheeks in the most heartbreaking way she had ever cried in her whole life. She silently begged that this was just a prank, he didn’t mean everything he was doing or have already said.
He stood up, Lancy did that as well. They had their eyes entwined and Anna stared at the way he firmly held her arm as though to show the whole world that she was his. She could feel the walls of her heart silently breaking, her chest heaving as breathing was becoming one of the difficult tasks she had never had difficulty with before. There was anger, there was pain and then there was self-pity. But she wasn’t going to show any of these to him; maybe the anger will do.
“What do you think you’ve just done, Nate? What is the meaning of this?” She thought she had the energy to yell at him, maybe if she could, throw the cups and their unattended deserts that were now laying hopelessly on the table. She squeezed her crying eyes, silently praying that when next she opened them, she would have a different sight before her. Nate would be there, but Lancy wouldn’t. He might be on one of his knee as he showed her a ring, maybe she had all imagined that.
“What more do you want an explanation for? You’ve seen it right before your eyes, I love her, Anna. I’ve already made her my fiancée, what is so hard to understand?!” He was harshly staring at her, but when his eyes turned to Lancy for the brisk seconds, he looked so warm and loving that she wanted to scream her lungs out. She was about to reply him when he cut her off, he knew that look in her eyes, and he didn’t have it in him to wait for whatever she had to say. “Don’t even think that threatening me would work this time, Anna. Look, I’m so fed up with you and your rude behavior. Do you think that just because you’re rich you can have whatever you lay your eyes on?”
She was about to reply him when he cut her off, yet again. And from the look in his eyes and the way he uttered his words at her, Anna knew that he had been holding those things back in his heart for so long. “To hell with you and that rich late Father you had, that’s none of my freaking concerns. And I dare you to ask Mr. Winthrop to do something bad to me, Anna, I’ll make sure to hurt her more than what I’m doing is hurting you right now. You’re so disgusting!” He lifted his face up exasperatedly as though he couldn’t believe how he was able to put up with her for all the years they had been together.
She was shaking her head, wordlessly pleading him that he didn’t have to shatter her whole heart for him to break up with her. What he did to her was enough, why would have to break her into tiny bits that she was sure she couldn’t even bring together when she wanted to mend herself? He didn’t see her plea, maybe he had always never seen her pains, her feelings and what she wanted from him all this time. What she really wanted from him.
“I don’t know how I was able to keep up with you for all those years, but really, Anna, you’re a horrible person that deserves no love. You’re a demanding, undeserving, and bossy bitch that I couldn’t wait to get rid of all this fucking time!”
“Nate!!!” She screamed at the pitch of her voice, her eyes bulging out as though a saucer as her tears ran down on her cheeks unchecked. She watched as Lancy placed her hand on his shoulder as though to calm him down from his own anger. “That’s enough…”
“That’s never enough! With your disgusting self, it’s never enough! I don’t know how dumb you’ve been not to have noticed for a single time that I’ve never been real with you. I don’t love you and living with you calling me your boyfriend and to think you thought you were the woman I was going to propose to? How funny…” He threw his head back and laughed, and she realized after all these years, that she didn’t know Nate at all, not even a fraction of what he really was and what he was capable of doing.
“How could I get married to a woman like you? Yes, you’re beautiful, you’re rich, but that’s not enough for a woman, Anna. You’re rude, bossy, and so disgusting! Look, talking to you like this irks me, this is all for us. Don’t you ever call or text me, please let go of your obsession of me this time, for I’ve been trying for us to find our separate ways, but you’ve been so clingy that I had no choice but to be as brutal as this. Goodbye, and enjoy the rest of your life.” From where she stood rooted to her spot, he took a few steps toward her and whispered into her ear, “And I think I should be honest with you this time, you’re the worst kisser I’ve ever kissed in my entire life. Your next boyfriend should work on that.” He turned to move away but quickly walked back as though he had remembered something she needed to hear, “I think you deserve to know why I’ve never had sex with you, it’s because there’s still a gentleman in me that couldn’t take something as precious as that from you. I don’t love you, I know we aren’t meant to be, so you ought to thank me for helping you preserve that, okay?” He giggled closely and then he was off.
And she stood, with her whole body shaking as she watched him snaked his hand around Lancy’s waist as they walked out of the restaurant. The door closed at the same time the walls of her heart made one last sound as everything broke down. She was shattered beyond measure and at this time, she didn’t even have the courage to stop her tears as they rushed down to her cheeks unchecked.
She heard someone clapping behind her and even though she didn’t want to turn to see who it was, for it was probably one of the occupants of the restaurant rejoicing one of the best ways to dump a woman, but nevertheless, she turned. And when she saw Jack clapping his hands at her as he made a turn so that he was directly facing her, she knew her heart wouldn’t just be broken today, it would be brutally murdered by the two heartless men she had ever known in her life.
“Please…” she began as her shaking hands tried to wipe her tears away but more gushed down. She knew with the way her chest was heaving and the rate at which her whole body shook, she might collapse down if she took the words Jack was obviously going to throw at her while she stood. And so, she slumped on the chair next to her, staring at him as she painstakingly shook her head. “Not now, please.”
Jack mockingly threw his head back and laughed, “Why wouldn’t it be now, huh? Isn’t this the perfect time to make a comeback to your disgusting self?” He smirked at her, lifting one of his brows in the most daring way she had ever seen. “Sorry, that wasn’t my word, your supposed fiancé called you that if I heard him right.”
She palmed her face and when her hands went down, her lips whimpered and her voice broke as she uttered, “Please, Jack, not now.”
He mockingly opened his eyes as widely as he could, and she knew that was one of his ways of mocking he even more. “Please? Are you sure this is the oh not so rude, Anna? The bossy bitch?” He chuckled. He thought the way Clara told him to avenge would be most painful, but the moment he realized what was happening in the table next to them and who it was, he changed his plans. He would have to do it now when she was deeply pained and he would make sure that courage, that self-esteem she had would be totally crushed by his words to the point that after what her ex-boyfriend did and said to her and what he was about to say to her as well, she wouldn’t be able to look into another man’s eyes and talk back at him.
Jack pulled the chair Nate sat on closer to her, so that no one would hear what he was saying but herself, and that way he was sure if she laid down at night she could have an echo of his words to the point that she would cry as much as she could before sleep could be able to take her soul away. He shook his head mockingly at her, “Are you crying already before I have a chance to say all that’s on my mind? I thought you were one courageous bitch, Anna? How would you let that guy say all those things to you and dump your disgusting self the way he did just when you were expecting to see a ring from him? Oh, you’ve seen it but unfortunately, it wasn’t for you.”
She clenched her eyes shut, because seeing the expression on his face will only worsen what she was already feeling in her heart. She didn’t have to stare at him while he made sure every shred of hope and strength she had in her was crushed down. She could just hear. “Please, Jack, please.” She pleaded. Why we’re all mean so heartless? Couldn’t he see that she was even battling to breath? What was so hard in realizing this? If he were a gentleman…she let her thoughts off when she heard his next words, he wasn’t a gentleman after all.
“I bet this is the way you’ve been wanting to plead with him to choose you over her, right? Look Anna, I’m here to mock you and make sure you feel tenfold of the pain Nate made you felt this night. And like he said, you didn’t deserve someone to love you. You’re a very disgusting home, so rude and bitchy. He mentioned something about money, I’m not sure of that to know whether he was telling the truth that you’re using the money to corner him around, you should let go.” He leaned forward to stand up from his chair but quickly sat back, “Ah, I’ve forgotten, I’ve been wanting to tell you this since the time we had this clash. Do you remember, harassment?”
She had to open her eyes to stare at him because of the way his voice sounded. She wanted to scream out of her chest but instead, her raining eyes just kept on staring at him as she fought the urge to slip into unconsciousness. She knew a day would come when Jack will make sure he said all the things he had been wanting to say, but the worse thing was, she had never imagined that when the time came, she wouldn’t have the strength to talk back at him.
“It occurred to me that you thought you were sexy enough to entice me into harassing you, but nah. I think what happened today was enough to tell you that you are far from being as beautiful as you think you are, and not even close to being sexy at all. Look, I don’t even regard you as a woman, you’re nothing but a rude bitch in my eyes, and do you know what? With the way you act, how highly you think of yourself, whenever you get into another relationship…” He widened his arms as though it could cover up the whole restaurant, “This will always be the end. They will always dump you and choose the women that are lovely because you aren’t. Like he said, you’re disgusting and whoever stays with you longer than a day, will be so fed up with you.”
He stood up while her bloodshot eyes followed his every move, even the blink of his eyes didn’t go unnoticed to her. “And getting proposed to?” He tauntingly chuckled and shook his head, “That would never happen to a woman like you, at least not in this life.”
Before he left, Anna fought so hard until she was able to lift her lips and the only words that roamed through her heart were the ones that came out, “I hate you.” That was for him, for Nate, and every other man in her life, the only exception she had was her Father. But for Jack? She hated him even more than she hated Nate, because somewhere deep in her heart she knew she could only fake hating Nate.