Fairy Tale Fail Read Free

didn't make plans with me at all. I didn't know
if I was going to see him all of the following week either, because
we wouldn't have work from Thursday on – it was Holy
Week.
    Then I got a call from him
on Palm Sunday. Did I want to go on a Visita Iglesia with him on
Thursday?
    Charisse was not at all
religious and would blink if a guy asked her to go on something
like that, but I found it sweet. The Visita Iglesia (church visits during
Holy Week) was a family tradition for me; Don and I had that in
common.
    Also, did Don actually plan a day for
us without my telling him to? I hoped it would be the thing that
made things right again.
    "Ready," I said, getting into the
car.
    I was just so glad that
this was Don's idea. Recently, all our dates had been things I had
suggested. Movies, friends' birthdays, road trips... it felt good
to be involved in planning our weekend activities, but I never
really found out what he wanted to do.
    The church he brought me to was at the
campus of my university. It had been five years since I graduated,
and I hadn't been back in a long time. We didn't go to the same
school, Don and I, but I did tell him about how I liked spending
time at the church. Being in there gave me a sense of peace that I
couldn't explain. It was like a sanctuary to me.
    I may have told him all of
that, but I didn't think it really sank in for him until then.
( Is this it? Adjustment period
over? )
    "What a great idea," I told
him.
    My university's church was spruced up
a bit since I had last been there. Even the pews felt new, but
maybe it was just my imagination. I looked at the Stations of the
Cross – beautifully rendered on stained glass – and said my
prayers.
    Don had finished his first
and gone out ahead of me. I took one last look at the church
– my church – and
walked out to the parking lot with a smile on my face. He was
standing next to his car, sunglasses shielding his eyes from the
harsh summer sun. Seeing him like that on my own college campus was
surreal. Don was a big, imposing guy, not the kind I would have
dated back then.
    "Thank you for that," I gushed. "It's
so great to be here again."
    "We have to talk," Don said, without
taking his sunglasses off. "You said you wanted to talk about us,
right? I thought we should do that now."
    "Now?"
    How many times had I thought of this?
Too many in the last few weeks. Don and I had been arguing a lot,
on things big and small. I'd ask if we could talk about "us" but he
never found the time to do it. Well, it seemed like he finally
did.
    "You're right," he said. He
wasn't even looking directly at me, but I couldn't be sure because
those damn lenses. "We haven't been in
sync lately."
    Did I say that? Maybe I did, but he
wasn't supposed to agree with it.
    "We just have to stop
arguing and really talk ," I said, not acknowledging that whole "sync" thing. "Instead
of just sticking to our positions and debating about them all
day."
    "That's what we're doing today then,
just talking."
    "No fighting?"
    "No fighting," Don said. "We can go
through all of our issues. And then if we still don't agree, then
we can just... choose to go our separate ways."
    And that was how my boyfriend broke up
with me. During Holy Week. At my beloved university
church.

Chapter 4
     
    Charisse was not the type who would
ever go through a bad breakup (seriously, she would see it from a
mile away and preempt it) but she sure knew how to deal with the
morning after. On Good Friday, I was camped out on her couch. I
couldn't face my family throughout the holiday so I said I'd stay
at Charisse's until Easter, and showed up on her doorstep with a
bag of clothes and nothing else.
    She, on the other hand, was
ready. We had bags and bags of chips, Thai food takeout, tequila,
and Supernatural , Prison Break , Gossip Girl DVDs on queue.
    "What did he say?" Charisse
asked.
    "I fail at relationships," I said,
dramatically.
     
    ***
    Don did not explicitly say "You fail at relationships," by the