Just Another Day (Apr 27)

Rick didn’t leave. He’d spent his whole life running, but he knew sticking around mattered this time. He couldn’t run from her. Not again.

“She’s gonna kill you,” Aaron said when they finished their last beer the night before. Rick wasn’t sure if Aaron was talking about his fiancee or his sister, but it didn’t really matter. Rick was done running.

He pushed out of the bed he’d been sleeping in for days. He knew he had to go home soon, wherever that really was. Moving around like he had nowhere had ever really felt like home to him. Except when he was with Tara. But he wasn’t there for that. He was there to help her move on.

No better day to start over than her birthday.

The day he’d destroyed them both.

Rick let his nose guide him to the kitchen where he found Michelle with a coffee cup in her hand and bacon frying. Scrambled eggs were in another pan and the light on the toaster told him there was toast too. And judging by how much, she was planning to share. The only question was if she would share with him.

“Hey,” Rick said in greeting.

Michelle turned to glare at him but didn’t speak. Guess that answered the question of if she’d share.

“I’m sorry,” Rick tried again, knowing those two words were going to be his most spoken ones for the day.

“For what?” Michelle asked, not turning around. “For breaking my best friend’s heart, twice. Or for leaving her panting on the counter wishing you’d just finished what you started?”

Rick choked on the sip of coffee he’d taken and nearly coughed up a lung. When his eyes stopped watering he spared Michelle a glance only to find her smirking at him. “Good to see you’re not invincible. Why’d you kiss her?”

Rick shook his head. “I shouldn’t have. She deserves more than me.”

“But see, that’s the problem, dumb ass. She doesn’t want ‘more than you.’ She wants you.”

“She’s just hung up because I was an ass the last time.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about that. You destroyed her when you left-”

“She told me to go!”

Michelle quirked an eyebrow at him. “And you thought that meant disappear and never come back? You’re even dumber than I thought. She was hurt. She wanted you to hurt too. Then she wanted you to beg for another chance.”

Rick shook his head. “She needs to move on. I’m no good for her.”

“Because it was just sex and you don’t actually care about her,” Michelle countered icily.

Rick sighed. The truth.

“Because I care too much for her. I know what she’s getting into if she’s with me. She deserves more than that.”

“So why don’t you enlighten me on why you’re so bad for her. Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like the two of you ‘care’ a lot for each other. And if that isn’t a damn good reason to be together I don’t know what is.”

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