Their End Game

Chapter 1

1

R adiance:

Summer 2020

“Baby, please. I am begging you to just come with me.” My longtime boyfriend, Ja’vari, stood in the middle of the floor of our hotel, in front of me, pleading with teary eyes.

Ja’vari and I had dated off and on since we were fourteen and fifteen. We were now twenty-six and twenty-seven. Viciously shaking my head, I parted my lips to speak with tears of my own threatening to fall. “I can’t.” My voice was shaky.

Ja’vari had recently been offered a position in Korea for a Fortune 500 company as a software developer. The job was a once in a lifetime opportunity and would open many big doors for him. It was a dream come true. I wanted it for him, even wished I could go, but me going would mean I was putting me second. I had goals and dreams, and going with Ja’vari would mean I couldn’t accomplish them. I saw where too many people placed their partner’s needs above their own and regretted it and envied them later. I didn’t want to be that person.

“Baby, I love you. If you love me, you’d come with me. You’re my past, my now, my future. I need you by my side.” He couldn’t hold the tears any longer.

My heart shattered, hearing his voice crack and the tears run like heavy rainfall, but no matter what, I couldn’t change my mind. “I love you so much.” My own tears now fell freely down my face. “But I can’t go with you. Going with you would mean I would have neglected me, and I have to love me first.”

Ja’vari stepped closer to me, closing the barely there gap between us, forcing me to have to look up even further than I already was. Swathing his strong, soft hands on the back of my neck, he leaned down, pressing his lips against mine. Instinctively, my small hands found his forearms, gripping them as our lips parted in sync. When Ja’vari slipped his sweet tasting tongue in my mouth, I whimpered before our tongues danced to a slow beat that only we knew. Pulling back, Ja’vari glared into my soft, doe-shaped brown eyes with no words. My breathing increased as I stared in his eyes, and my knees felt weak.

“If you can’t go with me, this can’t work. We’ve tried this long-distance thing before, and it almost broke us for good.” Since Ja’vari and I went to colleges on opposite sides of the continent, we had to be separated. He was right. It did almost break us.

He looked as if I had reached into his chest, snatched his heart out, tossed it on the ground, and stomped on it. If I didn’t already know that he was hurt, his expression told it all now. I hated that he was hurt, but I, too, was hurt. Ja’vari was the love of my life. “Goodbye, Radiance.” Ja’vari spoke somberly. He never said my name. I was always baby, so I knew he meant it.

I gasped, cupping my hand over my mouth. He meant it, and we weren’t going to come back from his words, the calling me Radiance, the seriousness in his eyes, and the tone of his voice. That kiss that damn near knocked me off my feet, that was his way of saying goodbye. It would be our last kiss.

Now it felt like he had snatched my heart out of my chest and crumbled it in his hands. Ja’vari turned, walking toward the door, his footsteps seeming louder than they were since he was damn near shuffling his feet. Reaching the door, he leaned down, grabbing his packed bag as he would be leaving for Korea tomorrow. I wanted to stop him. I wanted to say, “I lied, I will follow you anywhere in the world.” I just couldn’t move or speak. When he stood back to his full height of six feet, four inches, he paused as if he would turn around. However, his shoulders dropped, and a sniffle slipped.

Turn around. Turn around, please , I thought. I even wanted to say it, but it just didn’t happen. After pulling open the door, Ja’vari stepped over the threshold of the hotel room, the door slowly closing behind him. The moment the door latched together, I fell to my knees, crying a river of tears. The love of my life was gone.