Read Nate (The Princesses of Silicon Valley - Book 4) for Free Online

of my life.
    Calling her phone, I get moved directly into voicemail, which doesn’t stop me from blowing up her phone with texts. I start off with; What happened? and move to; Why did you leave? And end up with: Please come home.
    Checking Facebook I see she hasn’t blocked me from her page, as I scroll through her history, our history. Not even having the energy to be angry, I sit down on the floor, holding the engagement ring between my thumb and finger, and cry. I think it’s the first time I’ve cried since elementary school.
    ***
    Inevitably, a few days after she leaves I run into one of her friends. She gives me an uncomfortable hello. The only thing I can think of saying is, “Do you know if Mariana got to Atlanta safely?”
    “Yeah, we’ve been texting. She’s getting settled in.”
    I guess her phone’s working. Having a million questions to ask, I don’t know how to formulate any of them. Not wanting to be pathetic all I can manage is to shake my head and say, “I’ll see you around.”
    I’ve been avoiding calls from friends and family, just texting back things like; Really busy .
    At some point, the sadness moves to anger. I’ve become a holy terror at MMA.
     
    Melissa calls me, “When were you going to tell me that Mariana left?”
    “How’d you hear?”
    “Facebook. I saw she changed her city and relationship status. How are you doing?”
    “Yeah, me, I’m fine.”
    “You’re such a liar.”
    Chuckling for the first time in weeks, I respond, “Yeah, but it’s how I get through the day.”
    Finally, I ask the question I really want to know. “Melissa, why’d she leave? She never said anything. I just came home one night and she’d move out.”
    “I have no idea. What do her friends say?”
    “Yeah, I’m going to call up her friends. We’ll all sit around paint our nails and talk about our feelings.”
    Melissa laughs, and then after a brief spell of quiet she says, “Maybe she thought marrying you would make her happy. When she still wasn’t happy after you guys got engaged, she had to leave.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “That means she had this bright personality, but the women underneath wasn’t happy. She was looking for someone else to make her happy. When that didn’t work, she had to move on.”
    “I would have been there for her.”
    “Yeah, but that might not have been what she wanted. Anyway, I barely knew the women. It’s you I care about.”
    “I’m going to be fine.”
    “Yeah, I know you are. I just called to tell you that your friends care.”
     
    My sister finally gets a hold of me. “You sure dodged a bullet on that one.”
    Almost hanging up the phone on her, I say, “Fuck you.”
    “Come on, Nate, that chick was just a crazy control freak. You spent almost three years catering to her every crazy ass whim. When messing with you no longer made her happy she moved on. “
    “But, why did she sneak out? Why didn’t she at least tell me?”
    “And what would you have done if she told you?”
    “Convince her to stay.”
    “You now have your answer.”
    Changing the conversation, I say, “How’s California?”
    “I’m happy. I’m playing soccer, I like my job, and the weather’s great. No little white line on my shoes from the snow and salt.”
    We don’t say anything. Finally, Jamie says, “Nate, come out here. You’re almost done with your residency. When you’re done, come to California. It would be great to have you nearby.”
    “Yeah, whatever.”
    “Don’t, ‘yeah whatever’ me. There’s nothing for you in Minnesota. Come to California. Hey, promise me this, at least you’ll check it out.”
    Throwing my energy into work helps my career. For my last nine months, I’ve been the chief resident. With gallows humor I think this is good since Mariana would have hated the extra time chief resident requires. I’m also in great shape since I don’t have much of life other than working and working out. On my days off I head north