Tailored Love
WARNINGS: Mentions/Allusions of cheating
Amongst the young women in the lingerie shop, Larissa felt a bit out of place; it wasn’t because of the graying roots she dyed auburn almost twice a month or the Botox that seemed a bit too tight from the last session, but because she and her boyfriend, Xadrian, had become distant over the past few months.
Browsing through the items in the shop, Larissa couldn’t help but think about how he’d react to seeing her in some of the things they leave out on display, and better yet how he’d react to seeing them on her given that the two had barely spent any time together.
Collecting the scraps of clothing that weigh less than the money she’s paying for them Larissa makes her way to the checkout, she opts for the black plastic bag rather than the bright fluorescent pink one; because heaven forbid one of the other members of the community see her walking around with such a thing, she could just hear her nosy neighbor’s voice as she swiped her card.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit too promiscuous for someone our age to be wearing, wouldn’t want to try having kids while you’re unmarried now, right?”
Even if that last part was the case, which it most certainly wasn’t, why was any of that her neighbor’s businesses?
For while Larissa stressed over people judging her for the black plastic bag she held in one hand that became increasingly sweaty the longer she held it, she came to the decision to “just act natural”; and that resulted in her snapping her head up a bit too quickly, looking more like a deer caught in the headlights rather than a middle-aged woman merely going about her day for a moment; when she did this she caught a glimpse of a man she knew all too well.
Gazing at rings and sapphires across the shopping center, Xadrian stood in the sectioned off carpeted Kay’s Jewelers, an assortment of rings and designs splayed out between himself and an associate.
He looked rushed and the rings didn’t look as if they were on the expensive side, but Larissa couldn’t see much anyway granted she was on the other side of the center, and she didn’t want to ruin the surprise any further.
If Xadrian was getting ready to buy her a ring then that’s all she needed to rush home and get herself ready for him tonight.
Jostling her keys as she walked through the door of her home, she started getting ready for what she deemed would be best evening of her life, Larissa would make sure of it, she cooked one of Xadrian’s favorite dishes– all while she cleaned the house, she put on ESPN, and triple checked they had enough beer in the fridge before leaving to take care of herself.
Keeping on with her mission to get ready for Xadrian, Larissa zipped up the front of the top that matched the overpriced pieced of cloth poorly attempting to cover her bottom, she never thought picking out a ring would take someone so long, but she chalked it up to him probably being nervous, maybe he was even picking up some flowers.
Looking out of the window Larissa paced back and forth, so now several hours had passed, and of course, it shouldn’t have taken Xadrian that long to get the ring given the ones he was looking at.
Maybe it was the flowers like she’d initially thought, or it could be that he was getting some of those expensive chocolates that were so hard to find because they were rarely ever in stock, but he would’ve called her, he would have left a note at the very least.
Nearing on hour seven, Xadrian still showed no signs of coming home– and with no boyfriend to impress, Larissa turns in for the night; she reheated the dinner she cooked for him and took a chilled beer from the case she stored in the fridge for the games she didn’t care much for but played on the widescreen anyways; she ate her dinner in the bed the two of them used to share all while dressed in the lingerie she bought earlier, because dammit– she felt pretty.
Only when she finished her fine dining experience did she notice the little paper note sticking out from Xadrian’s bedside table.
Pulling it out, Larissa expected a heartfelt proposal draft, and it was, in a way, just not to her; instead, it had both proposals and breakups on the same page, and Larissa didn’t know what she was reading.
Quite against her better judgment, Larissa read the other letters crammed in the drawer, where words explaining how he never meant for things to end up this way, how he’d ended up getting Rebeca, the seamstress down the street, pregnant, how this was for the best because he’d found the one he’d loved the most, and how he’d planned to propose to her.
Rebeca?
So that’s who the ring was for?
That’s why he didn’t come home?
Under any other circumstance, Larissa wouldn’t question why he didn’t come home, but he was in town, he was buying a ring, and she bought this nice new outfit for him, Xadrian is hers, well–was.
Vacant thoughts took over behind teary eyes as she lay the letters on his side of the bed.
Why would he do this to her?
Xadrian, a person Larissa once thought she could trust.
“You bastard.”
Zipping off her top with the matching bottoms, she went to bed, but not to sleep; Larissa wouldn’t be sleeping for a long time with those letters lying next to her where her lover once did.
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