Savior Complex: A Small Town Love Triangle Romance

“You rat, you’re going to make me spill the news?” She swats Brayden’s arm, and he gives an embarrassed laugh.

“We weren’t sitting together on the bus,” he says, then he looks at me over his shoulder. There’s something apologetic in his eyes, and my heart plummets.

“We set a date!” Jordy exclaims. “Well, I set the date. You know that country club Nanna always took us to? That hoity-toity one with all the ice sculptures and tiny food plates? I thought, why not throw the wedding there? I mean, it’s expensive as hell, they needed the date to book it, and the non-refundable deposit is practically a house payment. But you only get married once, right?”

I want to throw up. It feels like all the air in the car has been sucked dry.

“You didn’t tell me it was non-refundable,” Brayden says, his jaw ticking.

“Why, you already looking to back out?” She laughs. The sound is like daggers in my heart. “It’s fine, Brayden. When you see it, you’ll understand. We’ll be making payments on it for years, but it’s totally worth it.”

I stare out my window, trying to mentally escape the prison of this car. It’s like a bad dream I can’t escape, except this is my life on repeat. I want to kick myself over how delusional I was. I mean, I knew they were engaged, of course they’re going to get married. Why the hell would Brayden choose me over Jordy, when she’s tall, lean, and so glamorous, and I’m … me? The fact that I’m surprised at all just shows how utterly stupid I am. I actually believed Brayden was in love with me…

My eyes blur as the scenery whips by. Jordy is still talking, but it’s to Brayden, so it’s safe to tune out. I wipe away angry tears as I sit forgotten in the backseat while they plan their future together. All I want to do is go home and wrap myself up in the quilt Nanna Dot made, sink into her cozy couch, and watch some lame movie on Netflix while I cry into my popcorn. I want to shut all the curtains, as if the outside world doesn’t exist, and dissolve into the house until the world forgets me too. I hope Jordy is staying with Brayden tonight, even if it kills me to think of him with her, just so I can lose myself in takeout and sappy movies and all my tears. I hope they get married and move far away so I never have to see either of them ever again.

We pull up in front of the house, and the way it calls to me is like a siren to a sailor. I can’t believe how much I missed being home, though it was only on the drive I realized this. I unbuckle my seatbelt and grab my bag before throwing open my door.

“Wait,” Jordy calls after me, but I’m already up the steps, my keys in my hand. I unlock the door, then breathe in the familiar scent of hardwood, decades of home cooked meals, and moth balls.

Instead, I’m met with cedar and citrus, fresh paint, and several other aromas I can’t decipher—the scents of a stranger’s home.

“You’re going to flip,” Jordy says behind me, her voice full of smiles. I can’t even look at her as I make my way down the hall, my hand on the wall for support. Gray walls. When I left, they were wallpapered with lemons and yellow striping.

I reach the kitchen first, and my heart nearly falls from my chest. From the threshold, I take in the room with just my eyes. The cabinets are painted black with gold fixtures. The weathered wooden table where we used to sit with Nanna is gone, replaced with a smaller bistro table—black, to match the cabinets—and three tiny stools. Nanna Dot’s towels, her quirky art, her millions of magnets—all gone—replaced with more modern art and towels, and the refrigerator remains naked.

“If I had more time and money, I’d have replaced everything,” Jordy says. “I even found this mystery cabinet in the stairs, though I just nailed it shut so no one would trip over it.” She grins, looking at me with bright eyes. “It’s great, isn’t it?”

I don’t say a word, so in shock I can barely breathe. I leave the kitchen door and head to the living room, my heart aching in my chest.

“My design class needed a real-life project,” I hear Jordy explaining to Brayden. Or maybe she’s telling me, I’m not sure. All I know is that when I reach the living room, I want to fall through the floor.

The couch is gone. The curio, her quilts, the rocking chair—all of it, gone. Even the curtains, which are replaced with filmy pieces of cloth that do nothing to block the light or the outside world. The furniture is all modern and boxy, hardly the place to curl into and disappear. A new couch is the centerpiece of the room, a lemon-yellow leather sofa full of angles. The softest thing on it is a throw pillow with daisies on it. The rest of the room remains stark and cold.

“I never realized how big this room was until I got rid of all the clutter,” Jordy says.

“Where are the teacups,” I ask, my voice cracking. She looks at me with surprise.

“I sold them on Facebook Marketplace,” she said. “I was able to get rid of a lot of things that way, really quickly in fact. It helped fund so much of the work I did. I didn’t have a chance to get to the basement, but I bet…”

“Where’s the couch?”

Jordy’s eyes widen.

“Where’s the chest of her crafts? And the potholders? And her candy dish?” My mind reels from all the things that were once in this one room. “Where are the pictures that were on the walls? Did you get rid of everything?”

“Not everything, Nina. Her quilts are in the closet, so are the pictures. Her crafts are in a box for us to go through. I just got rid of the unimportant stuff.”

“It was all important!” I scream the words, and they feel like fire in my lungs.

“Nina, she was just trying to help,” Brayden says, and I whirl on him, my eyes narrowing.

“Fuck you, Brayden.” There is so much more I want to say, but I won’t. I’ll keep his secrets, but only because they’re mine too. I was a fool to ever let him touch my body. I turn back to Jordy. “And fuck you, Jordy. This is my house, not yours. Nanna Dot gave me everything here, and you had no right to get rid of any of it. You had no right to change anything without my permission.”

“We talked about this, though!” Her eyes are flashing, but I could give a fuck about her anger.

“We never talked about this. The last time you pulled this shit, I obviously hated it. So what makes you think I wanted you to do more?” I look around, searching for anything left of Nanna. Instead, all I see is fucking Jordy. “This was my home, and you’ve ruined it!”

“You’re never going to move on if you keep living like this.” Jordy waves her hand over the room. “You kept every goddamn thing she owned. It’s like this place was a museum for the dead, straight out of the eighties. I could even smell Nanna Dot in the furniture.”