All good things

With bag in hand Jodie took a last look around her home for many years, so much had changed that she absolutely loved. Their once cramped apartment had become even larger with the addition of Lauren and being forced to share a room with Eric. They themselves had grown closer than she ever would have thought possible. She felt love, real love, for the first time in her life, and it was more addictive than any drug or drink she'd had before. But, she reminded herself, she didn't deserve it. A better woman did. Jodie briefly considered leaving a note or even a text to explain everything but thought it would be better if she just made a clean break. Besides, she thought, how could she properly explain everything she was doing or how she felt in a few simple lines? As Jodie was getting into her car she took one final look at the apartment she had locked behind her and left the key above the door frame, wiped a tear away before backing out and driving away.

That night Jodie was in Adam's large and perfectly soft bed under their Egyptian cotton sheets as Adam lay on top of her. With an expert pull he threw her black bra on the floor and continued kissing her. Slowly and silently he moved down to her chest leaving a trail of kisses leading to her nipple. She moaned with pleasure as his hand slid along her hip. God he was so good at listening to her body's silent demands. She giggled as he kissed her tummy and his fingers slowly slipped under the sides of her delicate panties.

"Wait!" She begged in half a whisper.

"I think we've waited long enough."

"But…we're not married."

"Soon enough." His fingers slowly began to pull them down.

"Wait! I'm…I'm not like other girls."

"I know."

"You know?"

"I've always known." Jodie's mouth fell open, too stunned to speak, "I know what you are and I don't care." Adam finished pulling her panties revealing the small penis standing at attention underneath.

Jodie sat straight up on the empty couch. She had waited for Adam to come home, eager to greet him home from a long day's work…but he still hadn't come home. She didn't think he had that much work but sometimes things pop up unexpectedly. She laid back on the couch and allowed herself a small smile. Jodie hoped her dream was just a prophecy of their lives together but she didn't feel right sleeping in his big bed without him.

One night turned into two, turned into three, and still no Adam. In his absence she was forced to work in the steno pool. Not an hour went by when she didn't look to his empty office. When she asked anyone about his absence they would only say he was working on a new project. None of which explained his not coming home.

[

In the steno pool she was treated as any other secretary, she was expected to get coffee whenever any executive demanded it, passed between executives when they needed dictation, and of course all of them tried to hit on her, showing them her engagement ring immediately had her returned to the pool and being called a cocktease. It wasn't her fault she hadn't had her usual lunch in days! She kept eyeballing every man's crotch that crossed her path. Which only increases the number of men who felt brave enough to hit on her without Adam's protection. One of the female managers yelled at her and nearly made her cry in front of everyone. "You're sposed to, like, file alphabetically! Why would you do it by numbers?! It makes no sense!" Jodie yelled trying to stand up for herself but being alone now she couldn't quite manage it without stamping her feet and crying.

"Get out of my office you airheaded dolt!" The woman screamed.

Sitting back in her place with other secretaries she did her best to hide and prayed none of this affected her transfer. Jodie looked at her phone and saw the dozens of texts and calls Eric had left for her over the last three days. She wanted to call him back or just go home and beg his forgiveness but the longer she waited the more she knew even if it felt horrible she still needed to make a clean break for him. She texted Adam one more time to tell him about her day but no response came. Did I do something wrong? Was the realization that their relationship had just jumped into light speed too much for him and he had to run away? Did he find someone prettier who he actually loved?

When she felt she could no longer hold back her emotions she hurried to the bathroom and found a stall to cry in.

The tears came without any signs of stopping as she realized she was once again all alone without love. Her father was right after all she was a horrible person who didn't deserve love. He told her the only reason anyone would ever want anything to do with her was if she somehow made it rich. "But that's not love. Hell you're a hard person to like, let alone love." She weeped as his words echoed in her head. "He was right." She buried her face in her hands.

A few seconds later, a knock came at the stall door causing her to jump, "Someone's in here." She cried.

"Jodie," Lauren said softly, "I know." Jodie slowly rose and opened the stall door. Lauren had been angry when Jodie hadn't come home for days and how it absolutely broke Eric…but seeing her now mascara running down her face she couldn't help but feel the same pity for her friend, "Come here." She spoke gently. Jodie fell into her friend and continued crying into her shoulder for several minutes as Lauren said soothing words.

Several minutes later the girls cleaned up, Jodie silently fixed her makeup and hair feeling at least beyond the point of crying. "Does he hate me?" Jodie asked quietly.

"No. He just doesn't understand what he did wrong."

"He didn't." She whispered.

"Then why'd you leave?"

Jodie frowned, "it's…like, complicated."

"Because Adam proposed?"

Jodie looked up wide-eyed, "You know?"

"The entire building knows, and probably beyond that too by this point."

"I'm sorry."

"I understand what happened, but you at least need to tell Eric what happened. If you guys are done…at least he deserves to know why."

"I don't want him to hate me." Her voice broke with pain.

"I don't think he's capable of hate. Especially not for you. Please tell him what happened. Not knowing is eating him up inside." Another tear fell as she imagined how she must've hurt him after all. She wanted…needed to at least let him know it wasn't his fault. He deserved so much more than that but at least this was something she could give him.

Lauren opened the door for Jodie who no longer had her key. When they entered the apartment The first thing Jodie noticed was the complete absence of sound. Where it was once filled with music and the normal sounds of life the apartment was now silent as a tomb. "Wait here." Lauren left Jodie in the living room as she ran off to Eric's room. What surprised her most was the fact that Eric was actually home before dinner on a day she knew he had work.

"Jodie?" Eric practically ran to her as soon as he saw her. Another shock came as he gathered her into a hug in the fact he had an unkempt three day beard. Jordan had seen him through a lot of breakups but he always dragged himself to work and tried to look presentable. "You're home!"

"So are you!"

Eric let Jodie go and did his best to straighten himself up. "Yeah, I,uh,…took a sick day." He forced a smile that he couldn't hold for more than a second. "Where've you been? I was worried about you."

"Eric…um…we should, like, talk." Eric's face fell as he heard the familiar words that signaled the end of many of his past relationships as Jodie sat him down on the couch. "I…we should,um, like…."

"Are you breaking up with me?" Jodie nodded as tears formed behind her eyes yet again. "Why?"

"It's, like,...hard to, like, explain."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No!"

"Then what?"

"I d-well…my…boss um…we've been kind of…, like…you know…"

"No. I don't." He said through a clenched jaw.

"We've been, like um, having an…um, an affair."

Eric ran a hand down his face stretching it as if he was trying to tear it off, "How long?"

"A couple of months. It was an accident though."

"He raped you?"

Jodie bit her lip and looked away shaking her head, some part of her wanted him. Not at first maybe, but how could she explain that to Eric when she couldn't explain it to herself? "I was, like, afraid I'd, like, lose my job and I didn't want to dissa-I didn't want to be kicked out cause I lost another job."

"Do you really think if you had told me what was going on I would be so cruel?"

"...I don't know." Why wouldn't he? Everyone else in her life had been. Everything else in the world was her fault growing up.

"I thought you knew me better than that." Eric stood up for no particular reason other than he didn't want to be sitting anymore.

"I thought, like, we totally had that big fight right before and, like, you were so happy and I didn't think, like, at first, you didn't really…ya know."

"Love you?" Jodie bowed her head and nodded in shame, "Jodie I've always loved you in one way or another. I would have understood if you quit over that, I would have understood if you stabbed the fucker we would've figured things out. I would never have abandoned you over that."

"But you tried to!" Jodie's tears turned to anger as she stood up, still having to look up at him, "You were going to abandon me, with no one. No family. No friends…no you! What was I supposed to think?"

"That is not fair. That is entirely different-"

"Is it?! What was I supposed to think?" Eric turned away from Jodie as the thought took root in his mind, Jordan had been abandoned by everyone in the past and he threatened the same…it wasn't a far stretch to see Jodie would believe as she did.

"I just wanted to help you. I wanted you to stay with me because I loved you. I'm sorry if I didn't say it like I should have even then but…you always were so sad even when you tried to hide it with drugs and alcohol I still knew, I didn't want you to slip back into self destruction again."

"You wanted so much from me I just could never be. No matter how much I love you I could never be what you deserve."

"All!" Eric shouted and immediately lowered his voice but the intensity still remained, "All I ever wanted was for us to be friends. Even when we were dating."

"I'm still your friend." She said weakly.

"Are you?! You've been cheating on me and lying to me and you expect me to just be okay with that."

"I don-"

"No. If you came to me and told me what happened we could have worked on the issue together. You told me a long time ago that anyone who would cheat on me clearly doesn't care about me…and I think you were right."

Jodie wiped at the tears forming in her eyes, "It's not like with Becky."

"Isn't it?! She cheated on me, you warned me to break up with her cause she would just keep doing it…for a while I thought…"

"What?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does…"

"Not anymore." Eric walked past Jodie and out of the apartment.

"Eric…please can we talk about-"

"I just can't right now,

Jordan. Just stay there. We

will talk more when I

get back." He grabbed

his coat and left. With the soft clicking of the door Jodie fell to her knees and let her tears fall unhindered as she buried her face in the couch.