Patrick looked at his phone for the fifth time in ten minutes after receiving the dreaded “We need to talk” text. He couldn’t figure out where he had gone wrong, but his girlfriend was obviously upset. Nothing good ever followed that statement.

From what he could tell, things had been going well with him and Gerri over the last eight months. They were almost complete opposites, but they got along great. She was sweet, funny, and caring. He was physically attracted to her, although she questioned that in the beginning because they didn’t have sex until after they’d been dating for four months. He thought he was being respectful—she thought he wasn’t that into her. But after they cleared that up, it had been smooth sailing.

Before he got that text, Patrick was planning a ski trip and he intended to ask Gerri to come along. They had gone on a cabin trip with two other couples and had a great time. The more he thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. What was he missing? He asked Gerri to come over that evening so they could talk face to face.

Gerri had a sad look on her face when she walked through the door. Patrick braced himself for the worst.

“I’m just going to say it,” Gerri began. “I don’t think you like my body.”

“This again?” Patrick asked.

“You stood me up when I asked you to meet me and my friends at the beach. You won’t go to the pool with me. When we went on that cabin trip, we were the only couple that didn’t get in the hot tub…”

“Did you ever consider that maybe I can’t swim?” Patrick asked, cutting her off.

“Yes, but I also considered that when we have sex, we only take our pants off. You stop me whenever I try to take my top off. And you don’t have to know how to swim to get in a hot tub,” Gerri responded.

Patrick started to panic. It wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped to get her off this topic, and he wasn’t ready to tell the truth. “It’s not you, it’s me,” he finally said.

Gerri rolled her eyes. “Are you seriously giving me that line right now?” she asked.

“Okay, what I’m saying is I don’t have a problem with your body,” Patrick said. “How do you know this isn’t about my body?” he asked, still trying to dodge the inevitable.

“Just stop, Patrick. I’m leaving,” Gerri responded.

As she stormed towards the front door, Patrick made one of the hardest decisions of his life and told her the truth. “Okay, you’re right,” he said. “I was stalling. I didn’t know how to tell you this, but there is a problem. It’s not what you think though. Just give me a second.”

Gerri turned towards him, but remained silent.

“It’s your navel.”

“My navel?”

“Yeah. Your navel, belly button. Whatever you want to call it. I have a phobia of belly buttons. I just can’t handle seeing them.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Gerri screamed. “Do you know how hard it was to come over here and ask you how you felt about my body? And you’re going to make some shit about a belly button!”

She was out of the door before Patrick could say another word.

The End.

Written By: S.M. Grady

© 2019 S.M. Grady

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