The yellowish lights of the Christmas tree in the corner of the café started flashing. “What did you just say?”


    “I said I want to break up,” he replied, a grimace spread across his handsome face.


    Her mouth was spread in an “o” shape. “But why?” she asked.


    Was I really alone in thinking this was a serious relationship? She wondered.


    “Daphne.” The man said her name as though he couldn’t give two shits about its owner. “Do you understand that all you do is work?”


    She clenched her jaw, looking through the window. Even though it was a couple of days before Christmas, there was only a dusting of snow on the ground. Last minute shoppers were rushing around in the strip mall area, packages in hand.


    “I work so that we can have a better future together,” Daphne replied, turning back to the man. She looked down at the still steaming cup of hot cocoa in front of her.


    He didn’t even give me a chance to get settled in my seat, she thought. Was he always this much of a dick?


    “How does your job have anything to do with me?” he asked, crossing his arms in front of her.


    “Gary,” she said, trying to his say his name in the same tone of voice that he had just said hers in. Her voice cracked instead.


    She bit her lip, feeling the blood rush to her face. How I wish the floor would just swallow me whole right now, she thought, wincing at the sound of her voice.


    “How does my job not affect you?” she asked, trying to reason with him. “You’re always asking me for extra money to cover your bills.”


    “We don’t live together,” Gary replied coolly. “I can always find another way to pay for things.”


    “Are you going to get a job?” Daphne asked him, raising her eyebrows. “Or did you find another way to earn money and that’s why you’re dumping me?”


    Daphne looked up and met his eyes. He was grimacing, clearly annoyed. She took a sip out of the hot cocoa in her mug. The song on the radio changed to a song about all of the gifts someone had gotten for Christmas.


    Gary’s frown deepened, and she could tell that he was grinding his teeth together. “You’re right,” he said, his palm hitting the table with a soft slam. “I’ve spent so much time waiting for you to get off work, every single day of the last six months, that I ended up meeting someone else.”


    Daphne felt her upper lip pull back from her teeth. “She’s going to take care of you in the same way I have?” she asked, her stomach rolling at the thought. After all I did for him?


    “She’s going to take care of me better than you have,” Gary snarled. “You act as if money was all this relationship needed. How shallow of you.”


    She shook her head. Is he serious right now?


    “So, you are telling me that while I was working my ass off and taking this relationship seriously, you’ve been off gallivanting with some other woman,” Daphne said. “Did you ever even try to get a job or were you just mooching off of me?” Her breaths were heavy, as if she had been running. Emotions that she had been holding back for months bubbled up to the surface.


    Gary scowled at her, his green eyes crinkling up in the corners. “Obviously I was seriously looking for a job. You wouldn’t understand how difficult it is to find a job in this economy,” he whined. Gary took a giant gulp of his hot chocolate.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Daphne glowered at him. “You’re not going to say anything else about how you found this new woman?” she asked.


    “It’s none of your business,” Gary replied, dismissing her with a hand wave. “It is not as though you’re my girlfriend or anything like that.”


    “I can still change,” Daphne protested, her heart cracking a little under the heat of his barb.


    “Now that we’re talking about this, I can take on less work and spend more time with you.”


    Gary’s upper lip curled up at her, a look of contempt filling his face. “After I waited around to spend time with you for six months?” he asked. “It’s too late. You’ll only change for the short-term. People don’t change.”


    Daphne flinched at his words. I can still at least try, she thought. She searched his face for a trace of the man that she had once known…or thought she had once known anyway. When did things change? She wondered. Surely it wasn’t always this way.


    “All I’ve done is give you what you’ve asked for,” she stated. “If you didn’t ask for more of my time, how was I supposed to know that you weren’t feeling satisfied?”


    Gary shrugged at her. “I dunno. That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”


    “What?” she snapped. “How am I supposed to give you what you want if you don’t tell me?” Her voice was getting shrill, and people in the café were starting to look over at them with curious glances. Daphne swallowed hard and smoothed her thick, black hair in an effort to compose yourself.


    “I told you what I wanted,” Gary replied. “A serious partnership where we treat each other as equals. You’ve only given me things I don’t want.” He took another big swig of his hot cocoa, and then continued. “You’re clearly the one in control of this relationship. You act as though you want me to be a dependent baby on you.” He shook his head, grimacing at her. “And you’ve basically ignored me for six months. What do you expect?”


    Daphne took a deep, shaky breath, letting out super-heated air. “I don’t know how you misconstrued our relationship that way, but I’m sorry. Is there any way you can find it in your heart to give me a second chance? I can do everything in my power to change.”


    Gary rubbed his nose, a look of derision coming back onto his face. “I already told you, it’s too late. You can find some other guy to change for.” He stood up and took one last big gulp out of his cocoa mug, slammed it down on the table and walked away.


    Daphne turned her head to look out the window again. Besides of the lack of snow, the people who were laughing and smiling, their arms full of shopping bags and gifts, could have been straight out of a Christmas movie.


    She saw Gary leave the café, still looking annoyed and fiddling with his cell phone. Her jaw clenched at the sight of his retreating back. I will not cry, she thought. She took a deep, shaky breath, and took another sip of her cocoa. Instead of tasing sweet, the drink tasted sour and bitter. She looked down at the mug to see how much was left. It was still half-full.


    Did he really have to break up with me two days before Christmas? She wondered. I was looking forward to spending some time with him, and now I’m just going to be…alone.


    She bit down on her lip hard, nearly drawing blood, trying to swallow down her emotions. Even though they hadn’t been together all that long, it felt as though she’d had a hole drilled straight through her chest.


    She took another swig of the hot cocoa, which was still lukewarm and sour. I might as well finish it if I have to pay for it, she thought. Her lips turned downwards, as she swallowed the liquid, holding back a choke. She looked into the mug. One more big gulp and I’m done. She chugged it down and sighed heavily.


    I should have known this day was going to be absolutely shit from the get-go, she thought, as she stood up and walked to the register. I should have just stayed in bed when my alarm did not go off this morning.


    “Can I cash out, please?” Daphne asked the young lady who was manning the register.


    “Certainly!” she replied brightly, her smile a contrast to the darkness that Daphne was feeling. “Two hot cocoas is…” She was typing the items into her register.


    “Two?” Daphne asked. “He didn’t pay for his?”


    “Sorry, ma’am,” the young lady replied meekly, looking a bit scared. “He did not.”


    That fucking bastard had to just keep taking until the very end, didn’t he? Daphne thought. And he says that I wasn’t giving him what he wanted.


    “Your total is going to be seven dollars and thirteen cents,” the worker told her.


    Daphne sighed heavily and took a ten dollar bill out of her wallet. The worker gave her the change, and Daphne put a one-dollar tip in the jar. The girl seemed to brighten up a bit again after she did.


    “Have a nice evening and a Merry Christmas!” the worker stated in her bubbly tone as Daphne opened the door to leave.


    Neither of those things will be true for me, Daphne thought, bitterly. If only I could have an ounce of this girl’s attitude toward life.


    “You too,” Daphne replied dully, shutting the café’s door behind her.