Sinnerman by Cheryl Bradshaw

All my life I’d been an overachiever, the organized girl with the OCD who tried her best no matter what. I was no quitter. Grandpa instilled that in me from a young age. Monroes kept going and never gave up. It was our creed. How could he expect me not to go after the one person who took someone away from me? While I sat and listened to the endless load of crap that spewed forth from Nick’s lips, I couldn’t take it any longer. It was like something woke up inside me that had been asleep since the day we moved in together. A light came on and I knew what I needed to do. The time had come to flip the switch on our relationship.
    “Nick, I’ve had some time to think,” I said. “Maybe we need a break from each other.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “For the last several months I’ve had to sit here and listen to you tell me what to do and what not to do, and I can’t do it anymore,” I said.
    “What are you saying?”
    “I need some time to myself,” I said.
    “Fine, I’ll sleep on the couch for a while. I did it last night; I don’t see why I can’t do it again.”
    I shook my head.
    “I need you to go,” I said.
    “Are you kidding me—you’re kicking me out?”
    “It’s not like you don’t have a place to go. You haven’t sold your place in town yet. You’ll be fine. And I need this right now.”
    “You know what; I don’t think you mean a word of it. You’re not in your right mind because of all that’s happened these past few days. You just need some time to get back to yourself again.”
    “I’m thinking clearer now than I have in a while.”
    He snatched one of my empty glass canisters from the kitchen counter and heaved it across the room. It smashed against the window, and the glass shattered. In an instant Taye Diggs was through the front door and by my side.
    “What’s going on here?” Taye said.
    “Nothing that concerns you,” Nick said. “I’ve got it under control. Get out.”
    Taye looked at me.
    “You alright?”
    “She’s fine,” Nick said. “You can go now.”
    “After you,” Taye said.
    “You hard of hearing or something? I told you to go,” Nick said.
    Taye didn’t budge, and neither did Nick. It was like a bar scene from an old Western without the pistols.
    “Please leave,” I said.
    “You heard the lady,” Nick said. “Get out.”
    I looked at Nick.
    “I didn’t mean him, I meant you,” I said.
    Nick gave me a look that sent a shockwave of chills through my body. It was a side of him I’d never seen before; it felt ice cold, and I didn’t like it.
    “Unbelievable,” Nick said. “I’m here trying to protect you from a complete whack job that all of the sudden has decided to track your every move, and this is what I get for it?”
    “It’s not about that,” I said.
    “Oh really, what then?”
    “It’s all of it,” I said. “Things haven’t been good between us for a while now. I don’t know how you can’t see that too.”
    He threw both hands out to the side.
    “Fine, if that’s what you want, I’m out of here.” He turned to Taye Diggs and said, “Have fun with her. She’s more than you bargained for, but at least I don’t have to deal with it anymore.”
    “Have some respect, Calhoun,” Taye said.
    Nick stuck his middle finger out at Taye and then walked into the bedroom and returned a few minutes later with an armful of clothes in his hands. He headed straight for the door and never looked back.
    My cell phone rang. It was Maddie.
    “Hey,” she said, “how are you doing?”
    “I just kicked Nick to the curb,” I said.
    “For good?”
    “I don’t know yet. What did you find out about that finger?” I said.
    “For starters, although I thought so at first, it didn’t belong to the woman who was killed the other day.”
    “Well then, whose is it?” I said.
    “Sloane, I don’t know how to tell you this, but…”
    All of the sudden I realized who the finger belonged to and my food wasn’t settled in my