The Ideal Gesture
The Hennessy flowed freely at Mack's apartment, where the glow of the TV where a basketball game played unwatched. Eric slumped on the couch, phone in hand, scrolling from Kim’s Facebook to her Instagram for the twentieth time that day.
"Bro, you gotta stop this," Devon said, plucking the phone from Eric's grip. "It's been two weeks. You look like shit."
Eric picked up his phone back. "Three years together, and she just walks out. No explanation. Nothing."
"Her loss," Mack said coming from the kitchen, with another bottle. "You stalking her social media ain't gonna bring her back."
Eric had met Kim at a warehouse party in Brooklyn. She was an artist with a laugh that only just drawn me in closer all night. Three years of building something that felt permanent—apartment hunting in the city, Sunday brunches with her friends, holiday dinners with her family—all of it gone with a single conversation and the slam of a door.
"What I need," Eric slurred, accepting another drink, "is to make her see what she's missing."
"Flowers and texts ain't working bro," Devon slurred, sinking further into the couch. "You need something dramatic. Something that'll make her feel sorry."
Mack's eyes lit up with an idea that, I got something that would immediately set off alarm bells. "Okay, I got this cousin who did something crazy when his girlfriend left him. That got everyone's attention.
Devon leaned forward. "What'd he do?"
"First, he went to a local butcher or meat market and got them to cut up a whole pig and put it in bag. Then he took that cut up pig and put it in the driver's seat of his car and park it outside her place." Mack gestured expansively, warming to his story. "Then he torched the car."
"The fuck?" Devon laughed.
"That made it look like he'd died when she saw the burnt bones, you feel me? She thought he was dead. Called him crying, begging to see him. Leaving him messages Then after a manhunt he showed up at her place two day later, and boom—back together."
Eric's alcohol-soaked brain failed to process the obvious flaws in this plan. Instead, he nodded slowly, seeing only the end result: Kim, devastated at the thought of losing him forever, realizing her mistake.
"Where's this butcher at?" Eric asked.
To Be Continued………