Goodbye, Mr. Regret

He could actually write something like that.

His lips twitched awkwardly, feeling almost too embarrassed to hit send.

But finally, with a reckless determination, he pressed the button.

Jessica's phone chimed several times in a row-messages from Timothy.

She glanced at the pictures and read through the three texts.

A wry smile tugged at Jessica's lips-equal parts amused and defeated.

If he'd said things like this even a few times in the past seven years, maybe she wouldn't have ended up so heartbroken and numb.

Now, the affection she once longed for from him was no longer something she needed.

The vine of love that had once grown in her heart had long since withered and died; no matter how much water he poured on it now, it would never come back to life.

She shut off her phone and went to bed.

Timothy sat there gripping his phone, waiting for her reply.

He waited half an hour.

An hour.

Nothing.

his door.

at the time on his phone-noon. It must be past midnight

asleep,

to be

bed, Vince scrolled through Twitter and saw the flood of praise for Timothy. The sight made

had really pulled off a

claimed all the credit, he'd managed to gild his own reputation

had to hand it to

razor-sharp-even the divorce had become an opportunity for him

squeezed every last drop

shuddered to think what kind of mess he'd

now if he'd taken

Twitter, only

a new

Post Without a Second

help but admire Timothy's knack for managing publicity. By now, the comments were

the majority were singing

asked if Timothy had kept his marriage

so beautiful, he was afraid

a screenshot of the comment and sent it

clear