Lost Bear by Ruby Shae

watch, took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face.
    Lynette was absent from the hostess stand, and Dave still sat at their table, alone. She didn’t see the woman anywhere, so she figured she’d disappeared into the back to celebrate.
    When she sat down, Dave scowled.
    “Did you send that poor girl over here to ask me out?” he demanded.
    “Yes, did she go through with it?” Emma smiled.
    “Yes. She did. How could you do something so mean?”
    “What are you talking about? She’s tall, thin and beautiful. Most men would love to go out with her.”
    “I’m not most men, as I’ve said before, and I’m going out with you,” he accused.
    “For now, but we both know it’s not going to last.”
    “Who says?” he bit out the words, clearly angry at the direction of their conversation.
    “I do, and you agreed, remember? We’re friends with benefits and nothing more. Did you forget our agreement?”
    “No, I stupidly thought you would change your mind.”
    “I told you I wouldn’t,” she said. “I think you should go back and accept her offer.”
    “That’s what you want?” he asked.
    “Yes, that’s what I want,” she lied.
    “Fine.”
    He stood, dropped his napkin into the chair and walked across the dining room with purpose. Lynette tried to step away from him, but he grabbed her hand and held it in his.
    The two became blurry as Emma watched them, and she quickly dried her eyes with the corner of her napkin, and blinked away the tears that desperately wanted to escape.
    As predicted, he’d left her for another woman. It didn’t matter that she’d pushed him to leave sooner than later, his actions proved she’d been right all along.
    Men always left.
    Minutes seemed like hours, but he eventually returned to the table. He had a big smile plastered on his face, and her heart broke in two.
    “Thanks for sending me over there. We’re going out tomorrow night,” he said.
    “Tomorrow?” she asked.
    “Yes. Neither one of us wanted to wait a whole week until next Saturday, so we decided to live dangerously and make our first date a Sunday night.”
    “I thought we were going to the movies tomorrow,” she said. She hadn’t meant for the words to slip out, but they had and she couldn’t take them back.
    “Yeah, I’m going to have to cancel. Sorry,” he said, picking up his menu. “Do you know what you’re eating?”
    “Yeah,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’m ready.”
    “Good, let’s order. I want to call it an early night so I can get ready for tomorrow.”
    His words cut like a knife, but the message was clear. Now that he’d found someone else to lavish with attention, she didn’t matter anymore.
    The rest of the evening consisted of agonizing small talk about the weather for the following night, and date ideas for him and his new woman. When he wasn’t blabbering about his future date, the once comfortable silences were awkward and painful to sit through.
    He reacted exactly how she’d expected, and on the outside she sat still, with a small smile on her face, until the tedious evening ended. On the inside, her bear roared in pain as he discussed his plans.
    At the end of the evening, they parted ways in the lobby of the hotel with a simple goodbye.
    “Well, I guess this is goodbye. Good night, Emma,” he said.
    “Good night, Dave.”
    She watched him walk out of the building without turning back, and then took the stairs up to her room to avoid waiting for the elevator and possibly breaking down in front of strangers.
    She walked into her darkened room, kicked off her shoes and collapsed on the bed. Tears streamed down her face, and her gasps for air filled the room and echoed around the dark space until she used a pillow to silence her cries. She’d known she would ache when he left, but the force of his betrayal felt as if it would smother her.
    She was drowning in pain with only one way to escape.
    She threw the pillow across the room, and ran down the