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This was Shena’s first time looking Derek’s fiancé up on any social media platform. The first time she heard about her, she had believed Derek’s lies about the relationship being over so there was no point. After seeing the wedding invitation, she hadn’t wanted to torture herself by going online and seeing pictures of them together. But now, she was pissed and she didn’t care what she ended up seeing. She wanted to get as much information as possible, and in a way, she wanted to keep fueling her anger.
She was surprised to find that there weren’t many recent photos of them. She was also surprised by how his fiancé looked in general. She was everything that Derek had told Shena he didn’t like. Short hair, rail thin, and covered in make-up in every picture. At this point, Shena was no longer surprised by the lies, she just found it odd that he had gone out of his way to tell this particular lie. Whatever, Shena thought as she clicked on the messenger icon, not my problem anymore.
After re-writing her message several times, Shena looked it over again in preparation to send it. “Nah, not good enough,” Shena muttered to herself as she closed the message. She noticed that Vanessa “checked in” online to almost every place she went, and usually posted a selfie while there also. It only took about 90 more seconds of scrolling to see that she went to the same place for coffee every morning, and one of two brunch spots every weekend. Shena also saw that Vanessa had been traveling for business pretty often during the months that she and Derek had spent most of their time together. Shena was fuming, but finally ready to go to bed. She had a new coffee spot to try out in the morning.
Shena woke up, still filled with anger and hurt. There was a small part of her telling her that this was not moving on. This was seeking revenge. She tuned that part out and continued to get dressed and make her way to the coffee shop. She eased her conscience by telling herself that Vanessa had a right to know what she was getting into. Fifteen minutes later, she was walking confidently into the coffee shop but she stopped short when she saw Vanessa in line.
Shena had heard the phrase, “it felt like I got hit with a ton of bricks,” many times before, but in that moment, she knew exactly what it meant. She hadn’t laid eyes on Derek in weeks, and now here he was right in front of her, with his armed wrapped securely around his bride-to-be. Her keys slipped out of her hands, the noise causing both Derek and Vanessa to turn around and look at her. Shena thought she saw panic flashed across Derek’s face momentarily, but he composed himself so quickly that she could have easily imagined it. He didn’t appear the least bit flustered as he bent down to pick her keys up and hand them to her. He held onto her hand just a second long enough for Vanessa’s brow to furrow and look at Shena with questioning eyes. They could all feel the tension in the air.
“Let me introduce you to my fiancé,” Derek said as he took a step back towards Vanessa.
Vanessa and Shena stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but was really about 20 seconds before Derek cleared his throat. As small of an amount of time as it was, it was still long enough for Shena to decide how she would proceed. Shena looked over at him silently, and saw that he was nervous. Small beads of sweat lined his forehead. He cleared his throat again before saying, “Well Shena this is Vanessa, Vanessa this is…”
Shena cut him off, “I’m just someone that he used to know. We’re practically strangers now.” she said while looking at Derek. “Goodbye, D,” Shena finished in barely more than a whisper before turning to walk back out to her car.
She felt the tension leave her body as she walked away from him for the last time while tears flowed freely down her face. There would be no revenge, just like there would be no explanations or apologies. There was only this last moment. A final goodbye.
Written By: SM Grady
© 2018 SM Grady
