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She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit
She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit
Author: Roewan

Chapter 1

Author: Roewan
Jeff Baxter came out, dressed and ready to go.

"Let's go, Max. Megan says she's done getting her hair done, and she's waiting for us at the front gate of the complex. She texted you. Did you see?"

He sent Megan a voice message while he put his shoes on. "We're heading down now, Megan."

Today was Jeff's birthday, and we were going out to dinner that evening.

As usual, he drove. Megan opened the passenger door and got right in. "It's still so hot, even this late."

Jeff couldn't take his eyes off her. "The perm makes you look even classier. It looks amazing on you."

Megan swatted him, her ears turning red. "Oh, stop it."

She handed Jeff the drink in her hand and buckled her seatbelt. "New shop just opened. Buy one, get one free."

"Thanks, Meg!"

Megan scolded him for being cheeky. "Tsk... Show some respect. I'm your senior!"

They laughed and bickered without glancing back at me once, as if there wasn't a third person in the car at all.

Two years ago, I'd been in a car accident while driving, and there were still steel pins in my right leg.

Megan didn't feel comfortable with me driving again, so Jeff eagerly volunteered to take over as driver, picking Megan up and dropping her off at work every day.

She'd gotten used to riding shotgun. Even when the three of us went out together, she wouldn't sit in the back with me.

I'd brought it up once, and she'd snapped back at me, angry and contemptuous, "Max, I never thought you'd be this petty. You actually care about something like this? Quit acting like some jealous woman, okay?"

Just as Megan stuck the straw in and was about to take a sip, Jeff spoke up. "Hey, Megan, isn't your period coming up? Maybe skip the cold drink."

Megan thought about it and agreed. "You're right. You're so thoughtful. Whoever ends up being your girlfriend is going to be so lucky."

Jeff gave her a long, meaningful look, then just smiled and said nothing.

But I'd reminded her that very morning. I'd even tucked pads and painkillers into her bag for her.

"...Max! Max!"

Jeff calling my name snapped me back.

"What are you thinking about? You're miles away. Megan's been calling you over and over. She wants to give you her drink."

Megan looked angry.

I reached out and took the drink.

"Max, what happened to your hand? I wanted to ask you back upstairs." He'd noticed the Band-Aid on my hand and sounded concerned.

I pulled my hand back, the corner of my mouth curling in self-mockery. "Happened while I was putting a chair together. After all, I don't deserve to sit in a chair that costs hundreds of dollars."

Megan's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.

"Max," she warned me, angry. "It's Jeff's birthday."

My throat felt tight.

Jeff looked at Megan, then at me. "I'm sorry, Max. I didn't know you had your eye on that chair. When we get back tonight, I'll bring it over to you."

Megan shot me an exasperated glare. "Ignore him. Who knows what he's flipping out about now."

Condensation from the cup dampened my palm, and a sudden wave of nausea churned in my stomach.

"Pull over!"

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  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 8

    "Long time no see, Max. I've been really worried about you this whole year. I miss playing games with you."Jeff sat down with a smile."Honestly? I regret it. I betrayed you and still didn't get her. I lost on both ends."But there's no undoing it, right? Do enough bad things and karma catches up with you."He smiled again and pulled out a diagnosis report.My pupils widened.Pituitary tumor."Megan didn't believe it. She thought I faked it to trick her. She grabbed me by the throat and told me to hurry up and die."His eyes slowly reddened."Max, I'm pathetic, aren't I? You're laughing at me inside, aren't you?"He suddenly looked up and stared hard at me."If I died, would you be sad? Or would you think I had it coming?"I didn't know. I said nothing.He smiled again, his eyes turned up toward the ceiling, and crumpled the report into a ball before tossing it into the trash. "It's fake. Got it online for a couple of bucks."Then he strolled out, cool as anything.His

  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 7

    Megan saw the IV catheter in the back of my hand, and her eyes filled with pain."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. I never imagined Jeff would lie, and he was hurt, so I lost my head..."She stopped herself."No, I'm not going to explain or make excuses. It's all my fault. I hurt you and made you miserable."Listening to her gave me a headache. I was so irritated I felt ready to explode. "Megan, enough. We've already broken up. I don't need an apology or a confession from my ex-girlfriend."She shot back immediately, as if on reflex. "No, we didn't break up. You just came to Candra City on a business trip for a year. If you won't come back to Valentia City, I can move here. We can start over."I laughed. Her words contradicted each other.If we never broke up, what was there to start over?"Then I'll say it now. I'm breaking up with you. Happy? We never got the marriage license. I don't need your consent to break up with you. We don't have to sign divorce papers, and

  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 6

    During my three months of leave, apart from one trip back to the company to wrap up my resignation paperwork, I stayed at Mr. Ballmer's villa in Candra City the whole time.I binged shows, played video games, and cooked a meal now and then.My only outing was a walk to the supermarket after dinner to snag some discounted fruit.Life felt boring and listless.Mr. Ballmer joked that he'd pay for me to go travel somewhere, just so I'd stop rotting away in his house.I smiled. "This is how I heal and recharge. I'm like a cactus. I don't need watering. Too much, and I'll drown."Jeff loved traveling and went all over the place.So did Megan.Every vacation, they'd plan trips far in advance.I never cared much either way, and Megan got mad at me plenty of times for being a buzzkill.She also hated my photography skills, so Jeff went out and bought a camera specifically to take pictures of her.All I could do was trail behind them, carrying everything without complaint.When I sna

  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 5

    Megan and Jeff came back.Max wasn't at the new place.He didn't answer her texts, and his phone wouldn't connect.Megan told Jeff to rest at home and went to the rental by herself.The door was open, and workers were renovating inside.Everything of theirs that hadn't been moved out yet was gone.Her heart sank heavily, as if it would never hit bottom.She called the landlord, who lived in the same complex and arrived within a few minutes."We still have two days left on the lease. Where are our things?"The landlord looked her over. "Your boyfriend set my place on fire. The fire department had to come out. He fell and broke his arm, and he got burned too. You didn't know?"You two seemed like you took good care of the place, kept it clean. I never expected you'd hit me with something like this right at the end."Megan's head rang as though she'd been struck by a sledgehammer."What started the fire...""A cigarette butt lit up a cardboard box. The sofa burned down to the

  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 4

    I immediately rushed into the bathroom and filled a basin with water to put out the fire.After several trips back and forth, the flames hadn't died down much, and water had pooled on the floor. When I turned around, my foot slipped, and I fell flat on my back.For a long time, I couldn't move.I dragged myself back to the bedroom, grabbed my phone, and called 911.Then I called Megan. "The apartment's on fire."She didn't believe me. She thought it was an even more ridiculous round of crying wolf, and her voice was weary with a trace of disgust. "Max, that's enough."Then she hung up.Once the firefighters arrived, they put the fire out quickly, and I was taken to the hospital again.For three days, neither Megan nor Jeff reached out to me. Not a single message.Jeff posted on Instagram.Megan had gone back to his hometown with him to visit his mother's grave.The muffled thud I'd heard over the phone that night had been his mother's framed photo suddenly falling off the ca

  • She Furnished His Place, I Furnished My Exit   Chapter 3

    Megan and I had been renting our apartment for five years, and the lease was up in two weeks.The floor was covered with half-packed belongings and trash.I didn't bother turning on the lights. I went straight to bed.I woke with a start. It was still dark out, and I smelled cigarette smoke.Megan was sitting in the living room. "Sleep well?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.She stared at the medical tape on the back of my hand and sneered. "You really went all out on the props. Where are your medical records? Let's see them. Oh, right, I forgot. You can't buy those at a pharmacy."My head felt foggy, and my heart was pounding. The smoke tickled my throat, and I couldn't stop coughing.She'd started smoking after Jeff went abroad.The first time I smelled smoke on her, she said it had rubbed off on her at a dinner with her boss.Later, I caught her smoking downstairs in the middle of the night with five or six cigarette butts at her feet. We had a huge fight and gave each other

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