Packing Up Love (Insta Love Shy Girl Romance 2)

CHAPTER ONE

* Claire *

It’s incredible to me that no matter how nice and clean your things are, when you’re moving everything looks like garbage.

But that was fitting since my life was pretty trashy at the moment. The man I had given my heart to had turned into a raving asshole, so I was trying to move out of our apartment before he got home from work.

I knew that I should confront him like an adult, but I just couldn’t. He’d become so mean and petty that everything I said seemed to anger him. It was really hard for me to speak up for myself at the best of times, so I had been cringing in silence for the past few months.

I’d spent the whole day packing up my half of our things, leaving a lot extra that I wasn’t emotionally attached to. I just wanted to get the essentials and get out.

I found myself getting distracted, upset that I’d let this relationship go on several months longer than I should have. Actually, I shouldn’t have started it at all. But his friends said that we were good together, and I was afraid to be alone. I was afraid to live alone. Although, I didn’t like that about myself. I hated being shy and feeling like I needed to depend on a man for anything. This had to change.

I knew we’d moved in together too fast, but he talked me into it. It had taken me some time to find a new place, and I was ashamed to be sneaking out like this, but it felt like my only option. Especially since the last time we had a fight he’d grabbed me and shaken me. It wasn’t a punch or a slap, but it scared me to pieces.

No men for me for at least a year, I told myself firmly. No way. I needed to learn how to be independent before I could consider being in a relationship again. I couldn’t stay with a guy who wasn’t good to me out of fear. That was far too dangerous.

Looking at the ugly kitchen clock that I was leaving behind, I saw that the movers should arrive in the next ten minutes. I just had to hope that Kyle didn’t come home early today. I was so exhausted and over-emotional that I couldn’t handle one more fight, or him insulting me. I was on the verge of falling apart, and the only thing holding me together was knowing that in a few hours I would be in a tiny apartment all by myself, away from his toxic negativity.

Checking the bedroom one last time, I realized that I’d done it. Everything was clear, everything of mine was packed except a few last things from the bookshelf. Opening another box, I quickly began packing, using dish towels as wrapping.

Then the apartment door opened. A split second later I heard my soon to be ex scream my name at the volume that had probably had the neighbors calling the landlord. “Claire, what the fuck is going on?”

My hands were already shaking. I couldn’t stand it when he got this angry. Looking up from the living room floor, Kyle was standing in the front hall, staring at the neatly stacked boxes.

“I have to go,” I whispered.

“If you think I’m going to let you just take off like this...”

He was furious. Red-faced. His arms tensed under his cheap gray suit. Then he lunged for me as I tried to stand up, grabbing my arms and pinning me to the wall. “I will not let you leave, you chunky whore. After all the time I’ve spent trying to make you into a decent girl, you owe me.”

He released my arm, but raised his fist. Trapped, I closed my eyes, cringing away from him. I heard a weird thump as I realized he’d let go of my other arm, and his breath was no longer in my face.

Cautiously opening my eyes, Kyle was pinned to the other wall by the throat. The hand that held him was attached to a massive hulk of a man who honestly looked like he was about to use Kyle’s head to punch through the drywall.

“You will never put your hands on a woman in anger again,” the man said, his low, deep voice rumbling through the room.

“Get your hands off me,” Kyle screeched. “I’ll call the cops.”

The man pulled a phone from his pocket. “My brother is a cop. You want me to call him right now? Tell him how you were threatening this nice girl, about to hit her?” He tapped a button and held it to his ear.

“Wait!” Kyle begged. “C’mon, I was just angry.”

He hit a button and put his phone away. “You will leave this place and not return for five hours. You will never contact her again. Swear it.” When Kyle hesitated, he was shaken against the wall.

“Okay, yeah. Sure.”

“If she tells me you’ve lied, I will make your life hell.”