Goodbye, Mr. Regret

He could actually write something like that.

His lips twitched awkwardly, feeling almost too embarrassed to hit send.

But finally, with a reckless determination, he pressed the button.

Jessica's phone chimed several times in a row-messages from Timothy.

She glanced at the pictures and read through the three texts.

A wry smile tugged at Jessica's lips-equal parts amused and defeated.

If he'd said things like this even a few times in the past seven years, maybe she wouldn't have ended up so heartbroken and numb.

Now, the affection she once longed for from him was no longer something she needed.

The vine of love that had once grown in her heart had long since withered and died; no matter how much water he poured on it now, it would never come back to life.

She shut off her phone and went to bed.

Timothy sat there gripping his phone, waiting for her reply.

He waited half an hour.

An hour.

Nothing.

door.

glanced at the time on his phone-noon. It must be past midnight

to be asleep, that's

had to be

scrolled through Twitter and saw the flood of praise for Timothy. The

really pulled off

he'd managed to gild his own reputation

to hand it

divorce had become an opportunity for him to

last drop of value from

ruthless, shrewd operator-Vince shuddered to think what

taken

through Twitter, only to realize Timothy's review post had

new trending topic

Viral Post Without

Timothy's knack for managing publicity. By now, the

the majority were singing Timothy's

had kept his marriage

beautiful, he was afraid to let anyone

took a screenshot of the comment and sent it

to clear

in the middle of lunch when his phone buzzed. He set down

checked his messages-Vince

me to clear it