Ex-girl to the Next Girl Read Online Free Page A

one time. It was a loose curl, but it would do. It was time to go.
    â€œKevin, do you have your book bag?” I screamed.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œCome on, let’s go. Where are your gloves?”
    â€œUpstairs,” he said as he skipped up the steps in search of them. A few moments later, Kevin yelled down the stairs, “Mom, I can’t find my gloves.”
    â€œLook around,” I yelled. Every morning with Kevin was the same old thing. He couldn’t find his book bag, coat, or shoes. Then he screamed down the steps, “Mom, I found it.”
    â€œGet your hat, too. Brush your hair while you are up there,” I said as I put on my coat and started the car. I had to scrape the ice off my window. The kids waited by the door.
    I buckled Kayden in his car seat and Kevin did his own. We were down the road at five minutes after eight. Traffic was unbelievably slow for a Friday morning. That’s when I realized it wasn’t Friday—it was Saturday, and I had got dressed and ready for nothing. Damn it , I thought.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Mom?”
    â€œNothing. Nothing at all,” I answered Kevin as I turned my car around and headed home. Martin Luther King’s birthday threw my entire week off. The trash men collecting trash made me think it was Friday.

Chapter 3
    Nadine Clark
    I stood over him. Him being Erick, my boyfriend of two years. When he was asleep, he was so funny-looking. His ears looked extra big. His cashew-brown skin appeared oily. He is just okay in the looks department—some days he looks better than others. Sometimes he catches me looking at him. He will look up at me and ask me, Why are you staring? I’ll say something like, I’m not staring. I was asleep with my eyes open. But I was staring because I want to know if he is the right man for me. I know staring wouldn’t answer my question, but it might help. I don’t want to throw my life away if he is not the one. We are not engaged or anything yet, but we talk about marriage and kids all the time. Erick always said, “Baby, are we having a big or small wedding? Baby, how many kids are we going to have? What are we going to name our kids?” He has our whole life planned out, and I’m still figuring out if I like him or love him. We have been around each other for two years. He knows my family and I know his. We have been on vacations to Jamaica, Cancun, and Japan to visit my parents—they are in the military. If I’m not sure about him, then I’m not wasting any more time. I need to be one hundred percent sure that he is what I want. He works as a lab tech at Graduate Hospital. He makes a very nice living. We would have a joint income of over a hundred thousand, but does that even matter if he doesn’t make me happy? I guess it doesn’t. I looked over at him again. His nose hairs were blowing in and out every time he took a breath. I was about to break up with him. But I’m going to let him think he broke up with me. At least, that was the plan. I have been scheming for months, telling my Aunt Connie and my cousin that I can’t wait to be single. Aunt Connie said, Don’t let that good man go , but I can’t keep pulling him along if I’m not sure. He caught me staring again.
    â€œAre you staring at me?”
    â€œNo, I was just thinking,” I said as he went to kiss me. I moved away from his kiss and out of the bed.
    â€œErick, I have to talk to you.” He sat right up—he knew it was serious.
    â€œHave you ever heard the saying, ‘If you let a bird go and it flys away, if it’s yours it will return—if it never was yours, it won’t’?”
    â€œWhat are you talking about? You are not making any sense,” he said, rubbing the cold out of his eyes.
    â€œOkay, I think I love you, but I think . . . I want to make sure we are right for one another. I think we need space.”
    â€œI don’t want