Hey y’all.

I’m all settled into my new apartment. It’s weird being alone all the time because I’m so used to Brady coming home and making dinner and having to clean up after myself. But now I’m back to having meals delivered and keeping my laundry in piles on the floor. I did hire a lady to come every two weeks to tidy up though.

When I moved out of Brady’s place, it was super amicable and almost like we weren’t breaking up. It felt like I had to move because his sick grandmother was moving in and we were all okay with it because it was the right thing to do. Or something. My dad even took us out for drinks after a long day’s work and we all laughed and had fun and Brady put his arm around me and kissed me. In front of my dad!

After my dad left though, we stopped texting and talking. I was beyond confused about everything and I wanted to have a reason to hate him and be done. I felt like if I hated him then it would be a lot easier to not be with him.

Randomly, one day at work, Brady texted me, “Dan’s friend from college is having an ugly sweater party if you want to come.”

And I texted back asking for the details and then I told him I’d go. I figured if he was taking the time to ask me (after not talking for that long) then he probably wanted to see me as much as I wanted to see him. So I got on Google and found the cutest ugly sweater I could find (think every color in the rainbow + sequins). The party was in the evening so I spent the day with Preston, who has been super busy with work and life. He might get engaged soon though which sucks because then I’ll literally be the only one left. But I’m happy for him.

Brady texted me around 6:30 PM saying, “Want to meet up?”

Of course I’d been waiting all day to hear from him so I quickly finished up my drink and told Preston that I needed to get going.

“So soon?” Preston asked.

I felt a bit bad for ditching him, but I was thirsty and wanted to see Brady. So I quickly hugged Preston goodbye, called an Uber and headed to the party. The place was trashed, but somewhat tame so I figured the party was dying down at that point. I spotted Brady standing in the kitchen looking at his phone. He was alone and I rushed over to him.

“Hey you,” I greeted him.

Brady looked up and gave me this look that made my heart start beating faster.

“Hey. How are you?” Brady asked. His voice was slightly hoarse which was weird, but I assumed he must have been sick or recovering from being sick. And that made me miss him even more for some reason.

“Great. I thought it would be crazier here,” I said.

“Yeah, it was,” Brady smirked. “You look cute.”

I beamed.

We stood there hanging out for a little bit. He told me about work and how he’d been invited to work on a project at the university, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to commit to it.

“It’s weird not having you around,” he admitted.

I shrugged, not about to get into the fact that he was eager to help me leave and hadn’t really made an effort to talk to me after I was gone. “Weird, yes.”

Brady looked at me and ran a hand over his hair like he was thinking and started to say something, but then Dan walked over steadily carrying three shots.

“Reese! Hey! One of my favorite drinking buddies!” he greeted me. Dan handed each of us a shot of Fireball and kept one for himself. Why do people insist on making Fireball a thing? Annoying.

We took our shot and then this girl showed up behind Dan. She was about my height, dark hair, wearing a tank top that showed off huge (real) tits and a Santa hat.

“Hey!” Brady greeted her.

“There you are,” she said. “I thought I’d lost you.”

Brady smiled and put his arm around her and said, “Never!”

The entire exchange was a little weird, but I figured he must have been pretty freaking drunk.

“This is Reese,” he introduced us, but I don’t remember him saying her name.

She shook my hand. “You’re gorgeous. And that sweater is amazing.”

I was pretty drunk by this point, but still decided to play nice. I thanked her then proceeded to tell her all about how I’d found my sweater and all the other sweaters I turned down during my shopping journey.

She and Brady continued chatting amongst themselves, acting like no one else was there. So I was forced to talk to Dan for a little while until the girl he’s seeing showed up. So then I just stood there glaring at Brady, but he didn’t even seem to notice. I was just thinking, “Who is this girl and why is he wasting his time talking to her and not me? We haven’t seen each other in forever.” But I was also drunk and really sad.

I’m not sure how much time passed, but eventually I realized that Brady and the girl had walked away. I quickly started to look around to try to find them and that’s when I spotted them walking through the front room toward the door. The girl was leading and Brady was behind her, drinking a beer. He glanced around and we made eye contact, but then he looked away like he didn’t even know me. It was so weird and uncomfortable and made my stomach drop to my feet.

It took a couple minutes for it to sink in and for me to realize what had happened. I took out my phone and texted Brady, “Did you just ditch me?”

I stared at my phone for ten minutes until he read my message and then didn’t reply. I texted him again, “What the fuck? Seriously Brady?” and still no response.

Dan swung back around, looking for Brady then he asked how my life has been. I burst into tears. I’m sure Dan probably thought I was a drunk lunatic (congrats, Dan, you’re correct), but I didn’t even care. Eventually I realized how crazy I looked so I called an Uber and went home.

Brady actually never texted me back about that. The next morning I woke up expecting him to at least apologize or blame it on the alcohol or something, but I didn’t hear from him. So then I got angry. We aren’t together, but I thought I at least deserved not to get ditched.

Anyway, I’m sorry about being MIA. I’m talking to someone else now who I shouldn’t even be talking to and he’s taking up a lot of my time and energy and I don’t know how to stop. I don’t want to talk about Brady anymore or even think about him and that’s why it took so long for me to get this post up. I’ll be back soon.