Only a Week Since My Lover Left

They’d only been apart for a week and already he had a new lover hanging off his arm. All I could do was follow them for several blocks before they slipped into the enormous ShakeShack near Times Square. All glass and escalators, I was tempted to continue, but I also had to get back to work.

I could feel my heart still exploding for him. And the young boy on his arm appeared trivial, or even showy. From a distance, you might imagine a man and his son, until you saw their hand holding and cuddling, even as they snaked through the overcooked crowd hustling to get out of the record-breaking heat of July.

Sure, I’d been the one to call it quits, but this felt weird. I was crushed and vengefully angry in the seconds I glimpsed his shocking red hair emerging from the subway stairs. My senses fired like a kind of shock therapy. I felt the hot thoughts fueled with dark determination as I watched the love of my life heading in a different direction.

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