Finding a Way to Love

Chapter 6

Adelaide

The next day, Mandy and I went back to the apartment I shared with Peter.

Mandy had written to him that we were going and that it would be better for him not to be found that day, but I knew very well how stubborn and stupid Peter was, so, as a precaution, Mandy had called a friend of hers.

Joshua.

A big man almost two meters tall who was the envy of a basketball player. I didn't even know how she had met him.

For my part, I rented a small garage in which I would put all my stuff while I looked for another apartment. It wasn't the most comfortable solution, but for the moment, it could be fine.

Last night, while I was comfortable on my couch, I started to see the listings for rent. I found a few apartments that interested me, but of course, I wanted to look around even more.

I sighed, opened the front door of my old building in Queens, and entered the elevator, followed closely by Mandy and Joshua. Each of us held stacks of open boxes in our hands, while in my bag, there was the duct tape that would be used to close the boxes.

Most of the things in the apartment we had bought together, all the furniture we had bought with the passage of time, especially the sofa on which the redhead was.

As much as I cared, he could just as well keep them all. But everything in the kitchen, my mixer, my beautiful stand mixer and all my kitchen set.

All that was mine, and I would never leave it to him nor to any woman he brought into the house.

We got to the eleventh floor and got out of the elevator while I searched the deck for the keys to my old apartment. I tried to put them in the patch, but the door opened, and, of course, I found Peter in front of me.

"Baby," he said in a trembling voice, and I rolled my eyes and then passed him to enter the house, closely followed by Mandy and Joshua.

"Please Ade, let's talk, I need to explain," Peter said behind me.

"I don't need any explanation Peter," I said,, putting my bag on top of the kitchen table and looking around. Then I put my hands on my hips and looked at Mandy and Joshua, completely ignoring Peter, who was looking at me pleading, "All the kitchen utensils and especially the stand mixer and the mixer, along with all the cake pans and the set of pots" I said.

I took a few boxes, hurried to assemble them, and then went to the bedroom, still tailed by Peter.

"Ade, you can't really do that," he said, and I placed the boxes on the bed.

I shuddered looking at him, who knows how many he had f****d up here, how many nights I had slept on the fluids of some woman he had brought.

I opened the closet, began collecting my clothes, and put them in boxes.

"Ade!" he called me again. "You can't do this!"

"Look how I do it," I said, ignoring him.

"Please, let's talk! I want to explain!"

"Explain? What do you have to explain to me? That you tripped with your c**k in the air and shoved it into a woman's ass? And who knows how many more times you've tripped!" I said, pushing him away from in front of me as I filled the boxes with my clothes.

"I made a mistake, okay? I was wrong, but I promise you..."

"You promise me what? That you'll never get caught again? That you'll be more careful? You brought some women to f**k in my house, Peter, at least you could spend a few bucks and take them to the hotel. I don't want to deal with you anymore," I said, then ignored him completely.

Peter realized it wasn't the time and left me alone while I finished stuffing all my things into the boxes. I went to the bathroom, and so on.

Room after room, he filled the boxes that we piled up a little in the living room and a little outside the door while we waited for the moving company that would take them to the warehouse I had rented.

I closed the last box, looked around, sighed, and went to get my bag. Peter had been sitting on the couch the whole time, not saying a word." Did you take it all?" asked Mandy, and I nodded.

"It's everything," I said with a sigh.

"The company is here," Joshua said as he came out the door.

"Perfect", I said, and then took the keys from my bag and left them on the table. I approached Peter and looked at him, "I don't have a copy of the keys, but if you are unsure, you can change the lock. I've called the owner, and I've already asked him to transfer the contract only in your name, I'll do the same with everything in my name so you'd better settle the matter" I said in an icy voice.

"Do you really want to do that?" he asked, lifting his head.

I sighed, "Yes," I said, and then turned around in time to see the transportation company enter the house. He instructed them on the boxes and then took the ones I needed, following Mandy and Joshua in the elevator and out of that house. Forever.

****

"You know, I'm very proud of you," Mandy said as she tied her hair into a braid.

I slumped between the blankets and pillows of the couch, holding my computer on my lap, the apartment search window open in front of me.

"Why?" I asked as I drank a drop of my hot tea.

"Because I thought you'd let Peter convince you and stay there with him. I didn't think I could really put a stop to that relationship Ade."

"I have my dignity, too," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"That's not what I meant, and it's just... For years, I've watched you run after that guy. You locked yourself in the house as soon as you finished college, you got away from everyone for his sake, and I thought you'd never get out of that relationship," she said in one breath.

"I just wanted security and stability, and he was giving it to me for the time being."

"Well, I'd say toast to the new Ade," Mandy said, laughing.

"I would say so," I replied, laughing, lifting my cup of tea and pretending to toast with her.