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He came to a stop and asked, “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, I’m done with this business. You need to accept it’s not going to survive, and you need to prepare yourself for what’s going to happen over the coming weeks and months.”
“What’s that?’
“We’re going to lose everything,” I rasped. “All thesethingswe had to have are going to be gone. We’re not even going to have a place to sleep.”
Travis jerked back. “So, it’s my fault? Because I wanted to give you the world, and bought you nice things, we’re going to be homeless.”
“I could have said no from the start,” I reasoned. “I’m just as responsible.”
“You never believed in this from the beginning, Indy. Never.” Travis shook his head and moved out of the room. I stood from the table and followed him, but he walked toward the front door. “I’m not giving up. I’m going to make this work. And when I do, you’ll see that I wasn’t wrong.”
“Travis, wait. Please listen to me,” I begged.
He didn’t wait.
He opened the door, walked out, and slammed it behind him.
And I had no choice but to accept my fate. I’d gone against everything I’d believe in for so long. It was the biggest mistake of my life.
I didn’t know where I was going to wind up, but I knew there was no hope this was going to work out. I needed to find a new job, and I needed to find a place to live.
Because no matter what Travis believed, one thing was certain.
There wasn’t anything he could do that was going to dig us out of this hole.
TWO
Indy
Warm, loving arms were wrapped around me, holding me fiercely.
“I’m so sorry.”
If I hadn’t already been feeling awful, those three words sounding so ragged coming from my best friend’s mouth might have sent me over the edge.
“It’s okay,” I replied, my voice just a touch over a whisper.
Agony filled her tone as she shared, “I tried. I really tried to buy you more time, at least until we got through the rest of winter, but it’s technically his place, too.”
I loosened my hold on Janine, and I took a step back, so I could look at her. There was no question how much this was eating her up inside. She’d done so much for me, and I didn’t want her feeling any worse about it than she already did.
Sadly, I’d run out of options.
It had been six months since I sat in the kitchen of the home I’d shared with Travis and told him just how bad things were for us. Six months since I told him where things were heading. Six months since he ignored me once again and tried to pretend nothing bad was happening, or that what we were going through was able to be fixed. That he had the power to fix it and bring us back from how deep we’d fallen into that hole.
That was the end of us.
Travis and I were around each other as long as was necessary to handle things. We stayed together in the house until we were evicted, but we fell apart before that happened.
A big part of the reason for that had been me.
I gave up. I quit.
Travis didn’t want it. He begged and pleaded with me to reconsider, to give him another chance to prove how much he loved me, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t doubt he loved me. The problem was that in loving me, he lost sight of what was important.
For far too long, I’d allowed Travis to sweet talk me into doing things or accepting things that I shouldn’t have done or accepted. I couldn’t continue living my life like I had been with him.
