Fairy Tale Fail

Chapter 3 - Visita Iglesia

"Ready to go?" Don said.
   It was a sunny, beautiful day but I wasn't feeling it. A cloud had been over my head for a while now, and I had been smiling extra just to try to shake it off. Not working.
   The whole week after our canceled Tagaytay trip, Don managed to schedule meetings during our regular coffee break, and didn't make plans with me at all. I didn't know if I was going to see him all of the following week either, because we wouldn't have work from Thursday on – it was Holy Week.
   Then I got a call from him on Palm Sunday. Did I want to go on a Visita Iglesia with him on Thursday?
   Charisse was not at all religious and would blink if a guy asked her to go on something like that, but I found it sweet. The Visita Iglesia (church visits during Holy Week) was a family tradition for me; Don and I had that in common.
   Also, did Don actually plan a day for us without my telling him to? I hoped it would be the thing that made things right again.
   "Ready," I said, getting into the car.
   I was just so glad that this was Don's idea. Recently, all our dates had been things I had suggested. Movies, friends' birthdays, road trips... it felt good to be involved in planning our weekend activities, but I never really found out what he wanted to do.
   The church he brought me to was at the campus of my university. It had been five years since I graduated, and I hadn't been back in a long time. We didn't go to the same school, Don and I, but I did tell him about how I liked spending time at the church. Being in there gave me a sense of peace that I couldn't explain. It was like a sanctuary to me.
   I may have told him all of that, but I didn't think it really sank in for him until then. (Is this it? Adjustment period over?)
   "What a great idea," I told him.
   My university's church was spruced up a bit since I had last been there. Even the pews felt new, but maybe it was just my imagination. I looked at the Stations of the Cross – beautifully rendered on stained glass – and said my prayers.
   Don had finished his first and gone out ahead of me. I took one last look at the church – my church – and walked out to the parking lot with a smile on my face. He was standing next to his car, sunglasses shielding his eyes from the harsh summer sun. Seeing him like that on my own college campus was surreal. Don was a big, imposing guy, not the kind I would have dated back then.
   "Thank you for that," I gushed. "It's so great to be here again."
   "We have to talk," Don said, without taking his sunglasses off. "You said you wanted to talk about us, right? I thought we should do that now."
   "Now?"
   How many times had I thought of this? Too many in the last few weeks. Don and I had been arguing a lot, on things big and small. I'd ask if we could talk about "us" but he never found the time to do it. Well, it seemed like he finally did.
   "You're right," he said. He wasn't even looking directly at me, but I couldn't be sure because those damn lenses. "We haven't been in sync lately."
   Did I say that? Maybe I did, but he wasn't supposed to agree with it.
   "We just have to stop arguing and really talk," I said, not acknowledging that whole "sync" thing. "Instead of just sticking to our positions and debating about them all day."
   "That's what we're doing today then, just talking."
   "No fighting?"
   "No fighting," Don said. "We can go through all of our issues. And then if we still don't agree, then we can just... choose to go our separate ways."
   And that was how my boyfriend broke up with me. During Holy Week. At my beloved university church.

===

So this was based on a real life breakup story. My friend gave me permission to write about it, but I was never happy with the story when I wrote it exactly as it happened. It was just so unbelievable. Truth is stranger than fiction in some cases!