Fairy Tale Fail Read Online Free Page A

Don's boss' party. I
barely knew the guy and didn't have to be there, but that was the
kind of person I was at the time. I wanted to be there because
everyone else would be there. Also, I had been watching Don's mood
like they were weather forecasts. If he wandered over to my area,
would he actually make eye contact? Would he say "hey"?
    At the party that night, he was in
friendly mode. He asked about my family, my sisters, and I gave him
an update that spanned months. It surprised both of us, I think,
that we had gone from knowing everything about each other to being
several months behind on everything.
    A rum coke and a half for me later,
and Don and I were laughing like we used to. While other party
guests occupied the dining room and family room of his boss Ricky's
house, we had retreated to the upstairs balcony, accessible from
Ricky's daughter's bedroom. We were sitting on the floor, talking.
Like old friends. Like pre-relationship Don and Ellie.
    Easy to forget what that was like. There was
a time when he was fun, and liked to listen to me talk about what I
did that day, and not pass judgment on me on things I should have
done. It helped me loosen up again. Our relationship – including
the breakup, and the ugly words that got passed around after – was
still the elephant in the room, but we both knew it, and we were
both pretending it wasn't there.
    I didn't know if I imagined it at
first, but it was like he was moving closer to me. We were sitting
apart on the floor, and then our knees were touching, and then he
was idly tapping his fingers on my hand. It couldn't have been
alcohol (his one-beer limit had been reached hours ago) and he
never got drunk.
    I pulled him toward me and
kissed him first, I'd admit to that. But it was his arms that
pulled me back to him, his hands that were under my shirt, his
tongue that lashed at my mouth. Our arms and legs tangled as we
rose to our feet and locked the door. My shirt came off not a
moment later, something that never even happened while we were together, and I
pressed myself against him nearly breathless.
    Ironically? That wasn't the "stupid"
thing. It was this:
    "I still love you," I said, and I
kissed him before I could say anything. I did that against my
better judgment, but it had been weeks since he acted at all
interested, and I thought it was a now-or-never kind of
thing...
    Next I heard staccato knocking, and
then the voice of a little girl. "I need to go to my bathroom!" she
yelled.
    It was Ricky's daughter and she
sounded bratty and impatient. I became decent in record time, and
made it back out to the balcony as Don opened the door. Ricky's
seven-year-old was there, but Charisse was right behind
her.
    "Me first!" The little girl pushed
past Don and into her bathroom. When I looked again, Don was gone,
and Charisse had come into the room.
    "Sorry," Charisse said, looking at me
with concern. "But all the bathrooms were occupied and… are you
okay?"
    "Yes," I said, smiling like a crazy
person. "Yes, I'm okay."
    My friend was skeptical, and as she
stepped out onto the balcony with me I knew that she had an idea of
what they had interrupted.
    "You know, right?" she said, and I
felt like my heart was stabbed by a very blunt object. "Don was
going out with my friend Gabbie until a few weeks ago. I told her
about what he did to you, and she told him she wasn't
interested."
    "I didn't know that," I managed to
say.
    Which was worse? That Charisse pretty
much sabotaged Don's chances with a girl, or that he had
reconnected with me on the rebound? Ugh, what would be something a
level lower than a doormat? That was me.
    "Ellie, I'm serious. Don is… I mean,
he's a friend but... well, you should know. Don't fall for it
again. Just don't. You have to move on already."
    I coughed. "I have, I really have," I
lied. "We were just talking, Charisse, like old times. I didn't
realize the door was locked, that's all."
    Don didn't call me or talk to me after
that, and in the next week