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Chapter One

AngelaI watched the clock as the big hand hit the hour ht it because I couldn’t stand the quiet inI couldn’t help but be aware of the passage of time, even when I didn’t want to be

The ticking sound it h there were times when I let the sound lullalone at hoet rid of it eventually or dump it on whoever I could find since it did cost me money

It was seven p to do and no one to talk to Instead, I was in o faster so I could finally go to sleep

When did this become my life?

I thought back to the ti tio sometimes, but it had only been a few months Since the divorce, none of my friends would talk to me I hadn't realized until after we separated that they were all more Stuart’s friends thanup with him

When I first brought up the separation, I didn’t realize the reason they tried to talkit out with hi to do hether they cared aboutIt had been hard to accept at first, but after being shunned for weeks, it was hard not to get it

“Ugh,” I groaned and jumped up from the bed “What the fuck!”

It wasn’t like I couldn’t go out Well, I was thirty-five and also a university professor, so it would actually be pretty da if I went out to some club and students froed, but all the professors knew most of the students, especially the ones that didn’t live in the dorht when they could I’d lost e, my house, to some people, I’d lost my reputation I did not intend to lose my job

Maybe there’s so on TV that’ll keep me occupied

I went back to the living room Since it was the weekend, and school had started not too long ago, there were a few assignrade but I’d already done them, and I looked over the plan for next week’s classes I’d eaten dinner early without checking the time, but if I slept early, then I’d wake up early to to do that I would have to spend bored out of my mind Alone As usual

At so some of the other professors if they were busy for the weekend, but I didn’t le a lot at work

I sat on the couch with a bottle of beer and picked up the reh several channels before landing on so in at theto pay attention to it, anyway

Work was the only thing that could really distracta professor for soelse, especially with the mood I was in, and my mind would wander

In the hts turned away frorasp and moved onto Stuart, my ex-husband

What was I thinking when I married him? It was a question I’d asked myself a lot after the divorce All ure out why I wanted to get divorced, but none of them knehat he was like when it was just the two of us, behind closed doors I never planned to tell anyone, either, so all I could do was make peace with the fact that all my friends for the past ten years turned their backs on ned those papers

I still don’t regret it

The only proble bored in my free time If it was all I had to pay for the sake of freedom, then I was happy

When I blinked and my brown eyes refocused on the TV, I frowned I turned it off, and checked the time, and could have cried when I realized barely twenty minutes had passed

“For fuck’s sake!” I whispered to myself Irritation was a buzz in h dark brown hair to get it out of my face