Never Like

Chapter 1

"Those words - they were so superficially familiar. But it was like they took on a whole new meaning the moment she said them."

"What did she say again?"

"I guess I expected too much from him." I paraphrase.

Tonya moves some of the auburn strands falling on her face to continue monitoring the Uber car widget moving on the map towards her house.

"I agree with her."

She doesn't even look up when I shake my head disapprovingly. Of course Tonya agrees with that statement. She hardly believes in love - she'll be the first to tell you.

"It's such a sad statement though. How can something as simple as fidelity be too much?"

Tonya's eyes freeze in place as her body remains still. Slowly, her lids lift to reveal her dark irises.

"It's not, right?" I ask.

"I think you're reading too deeply into this. He cheated on her; big whoop. She can join the two-thirds of the female population that already went through that and got the fuck over it."

I ignore her comment. She doesn't know Leona like I do. Leona doesn't break down - ever.

"I always knew there was something off about him. Even Mackenzie refuses to see him all these years later. You'd think that being his child would mean that she'd love him unconditionally, but she literally blanks out when his name comes up."

"She blanks out every two seconds."

I nod as Tonya's eyes circle back to her phone screen.

If there's something to know about my cousin, Mackenzie, it's that she makes a point of not caring about anyone or anything - even more so than Tonya. Her mother adopts the same attitude for the most part. But this morning, she was different. Receiving that cheque from Ivan had completely rocked her world. Her never-before-seen tears stirred up an anger in me - a true hatred for the first and only love of Leona's life.

That cheque was a slap in the face after the years of abandonment both mother and child had endured. I stayed there the whole morning, hugging her close from the right whilst my mother took left flank, trying to shoulder some of her pain. I listened to her ramble on about the havoc he wreaked in her life while remaining unaffected myself. But those words, when said, crawled under my skin and left me feeling uneasy.

After all, what is love but expectations and conditions? That's how people should pick their partners; by believing what they do, not what they say. That's why I still don't understand how Leona didn't see it coming. I haven't even lived half as much as her, but I'm already aware of the Ivans of the world. In fact, I had my very own Ivan. But he never got the best of me because I never expected anything from him. I knew he wasn't the one for me.