Leaving - It's What You're Good at

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.

“Long enough. Hello, Brad.” He said.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Brad shot at Ben.

“Well judging from the movies and popcorn I would say I came to spend some time with the pretty lady.”

“Well, the pretty lady is MY pretty lady and we’re going out for dinner,” Brad retorted.

“Oh contraire. I believe ‘your’ pretty lady just said she had absolutely no interest in going to dinner with you. By the way, beautiful flowers today. Or at least they looked that way in the trash.”

I thought for a second that Brad would punch him but somehow he refrained himself.

“Addy, are you seriously going to hang out with this douche bag? Come on, babe, let’s get dinner.”

“I don’t know how many times she has to say it, man…” Ben started but I stopped him.

“Let me handle this,” I directed Ben. “Brad, could you please be so kind as to leave? I know you know how. You did it so well before.”
“That’s not fair…” Brad quipped.

“Oh, it’s more than fair. There’s the door. Don’t let it hit you on the way out.”
Brad stormed out the door but not before giving me and Ben a menacing look. I brushed it off, shut the door – and locked it – behind him and smiled warmly at Ben.

Give me 12 Steps

“You mean your ALCOHOLISM? The very alcoholism that you would still be battling if not for me. Hell, you might even be dead by now Addy if not for me. At the rate you were going, that’s exactly where you were headed. You’re lucky I made you stop.”

“Save the bullshit. You didn’t MAKE me stop. I’ll give credit where credit’s due. You’re right – you saved me from self-destructing but you didn’t do it alone. I had a VERY big hand in that. I’m the one who sat through daily AA meetings and suffered through serious withdrawals.”

“And who was right there by your side all along the way? That’s right it was me.”

“You’re right. You were right by my side. But guess who also sent me back to the bottle?”

“That’s not fair...”

“Shit. This isn’t getting us anywhere, Addy.”

“That’s right. You don’t want to take blame for anything. But that’s okay. If it’s one thing AA taught me is that I have to take responsibility for my own actions and although you had something to do with pushing me to the edge, I’m the one who jumped. But at least it was just temporary. I’m going to get right back in AA and back on the road to recovery.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. So how about we go grab dinner before my stomach eats itself?”

“I’m not going to dinner with you.”

“But you’re looking so hot…”

“Hello beautiful,” a voice boomed from the still open door. I looked past Brad to see a towering Ben and Brad swung around to see who else was joining us.

“Oh of course not. You want to take credit for ‘curing’ me but you don’t want to take credit for screwing me up even more. Do you really think that a girl who has battled serious self-worth issues her entire life and suffered at the hands of an alcoholic, abusive father is going to handle being left at the altar and just skip along like everything’s okay? Come on, Brad. I thought you knew me better than that.”