I Stopped Waiting for the Man I Loved for Ten Years Who Never Stood by Me Chapter 02

I Stopped Waiting for the Man I Loved for Ten Years Who Never Stood by Me Chapter 02

Snacks and bottles were scattered all over the table.

Tinsley was curled up on the couch, my blanket wrapped around her feet, throw pillows everywhere.

The house I’d just tidied up was a wreck again.

“You’re home early,” Dylan said, greeting me like nothing was wrong.

“Didn’t we agree no one comes over?” I asked, looking at him.

“Last time my mom wanted to come over for dinner, you said no. So what’s this?”

Dylan ran a hand through his messy hair, annoyance in his eyes. “You’re never home. I get bored. I can’t have friends over?”

“The whole point of saying no guests was so we could have our own space, remember?”

“Think about it—have you really spent any time with me in the last two years?”

“No, you haven’t.”

“You don’t care about me.”

I was trying to talk about the issue, and he turned it into an argument about feelings.

We weren’t getting anywhere.

I left the box on the entryway table and went straight to the bedroom.

A knock came at the door while I was folding clothes. “Paige, are you mad?” Tinsley asked directly.

“Look, if you don’t like me, just say it. It’s not like I’m dying to come over here. You don’t have to give me dirty looks.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I didn’t like her.

But it didn’t start just now.

The first time I met her, she was sitting on Dylan’s lap, acting cute.

That was at Dylan’s birthday party. I’d just walked in, and that was what I saw. I shoved Tinsley off and slapped Dylan across the face.

He just pushed his tongue against his cheek and laughed. “Since when are you so uptight?”

“It was just a game. You really mad?”

Tinsley was five or six years younger than the rest of his crew.

Back then, she’d just joined their circle.

Everyone protected her. They all rushed to apologize and smooth things over.

“Come on, don’t be mad, it was just a game.”

“My idea. My bad.”

“She’s new, it’s cool that she fits in.”

But Tinsley wasn’t having it. “Why are you so threatened? Just put a leash on him if you’re that insecure.”

Dylan shut her down. “Try yelling one more time.”

“I told you I’m taken and you still came at me. Now you’re yelling at my girlfriend?”

“Apologize.”

He always defended me in public. But after that, I started feeling insecure.

I wasn’t young anymore. My career was on track, and I had less and less time to hang out in his world.

Dylan ran a live music bar.

Sometimes he wrote and recorded songs for people.

The people around him were always eighteen- to twenty-year-old girls.

They were like I used to be. Free and passionate.

When they liked someone, they went all in.

I thought if we just got married, they’d keep their distance. So I brought it up. But he wouldn’t say yes.

For two years, because of marriage.

We fought. We gave each other the silent treatment.

When I asked why he wouldn’t marry me, he said he wanted to save up a hundred fifty thousand dollars first.

He made decent money, but he spent even more.

New streetwear every month—clothes, shoes, accessories.

Daily bar tabs and messing around with cars.

His bank account was basically empty. What savings?

I started putting all my time into work, trying to build a future for us.

But then he started complaining that I wasn’t giving him emotional support anymore, that I’d forgotten how to be romantic.

He didn’t notice that he’d changed too.

Tinsley was still knocking on the door. Dylan didn’t even acknowledge it.

He wasn’t automatically on my side anymore.

I opened the door.

Looked at Tinsley. “Yeah, I don’t like you.”

“Not my problem.”

I pulled my suitcase around her and turned to Dylan.

“I’m moving out today. The security deposit was five grand, and I paid it. Send it to me.”