The Problem with Players (Problem #2)

by Brittainy C. Cherry

Instead, I lay in my fiancé's arms, thinking about another man.

Screw you, Nathaniel! Of course, I know I’m doing a great job!

I didn’t need his praise. If anything, I needed him to shut up.

I should’ve been more excited about the wedding taking place in two days, about my wedding.

with every passing second, I felt more and more anxiety in my chest.

Was it normal to feel terrified in the days leading up to “I do”?

“Don’t marry him,” he blurted out.

The seriousness in his tone broke my heart.

“Because sometimes love feels so big in my chest that it leaks from my eyes.”

“Mama, what should I do?” I whispered, praying she could hear me from wherever she was.

okay?” “Yeah. It’s just…Drew just called me with some big news. I got the job.”

“I got accepted to a new program that will train me to go to outer space.”

He was leaving me ten minutes before we said “I do.”

“You’re leaving me for a job?” I asked, getting flashbacks I thought I’d buried so many years ago.

Just like that, I was eighteen years old again, having a man choose his career over me.

“Okay,” I muttered, shaking my head, still in disbelief. “Then go.”

“Tell them that you left me. Tell them that you got a new job with your ex-girlfriend.

You can escape to my penthouse in Chicago for the long weekend.

“Well, I have a home. So if I have a home, you have a home. If you need one, I mean.”

If I could turn back time, I would’ve never played another game of baseball if it meant I had her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to tell you that secret.”

“That sometimes I’m so sad I want to run away from everything.”

“You said you’d take care of me before, but you still left.”

“Why didn’t you ever come back? I needed you, Nathan.

needed you to come back for me. And I waited, and waited, and, oh my gosh…”

Avery. I’m grown, and I wouldn’t hurt you again. Trust me. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

that’s what you men do—you lie to get what you want.

then a better opportunity comes, and you leave. And then my mind will try to move on while

You left me for baseball. He left me for space. And here I ...

I wanted the tears to stop falling, but that was the issue with holding so much in for so very long.

I wished Mama was there to hug me. To hold me. To tell me everything would be fine.

A father’s love was just as important as a mother’s. I was lucky I still had Daddy around to give me his love.

that stayed with me for a long time. “Go where you’re loved, baby girl, and never stay a second longer when the love is removed.”

I had my mind made up. It was either Avery for me or no one.

He left before. Wesley left. Mama left.

that was the one where my fear of abandonment truly took flight.

“Because how can you love me when I don’t even know how to love myself?”

What if my love isn’t enough for him to stay?”

Imagine a love story that only grows.”