Free The Queen of Bad Decisions by Janel Gradowski

 
     
     
     
    The Queen of Bad Decisions
     
     
    Daisy sorted through scorched wooden spoons, bent knives and mangled forks, looking for a spatula. All of the useless utensils were in the kitchen drawer when she moved in with Gary. Everything needed to be replaced. Just like their relationship, it was all too messed up to work right. Maybe her self-respect had gotten lost in the junk, too. It hadn’t made an appearance in over a year. Still, she stayed with him by convincing herself she couldn’t find anyone better. Pathetic. All of her brains and common sense evaporated when it came to men. She hadn’t just lowered her standards when she started dating Gary, she sucker punched her morals and left them to wallow in the mud. She was the queen of bad decisions and the position royally sucked. Plus, the crown was ugly and gave her a headache.
    The apartment looked like Gary still lived there alone. Other than some clothes and a storage box full of coveted yarn, hidden in the back of the closet, there wasn’t much else that belonged to her. He wouldn’t allow even a hint of femininity in the apartment, so she couldn’t change anything in his flop house chic decor. Hell, having a live-in girlfriend didn’t even alter his dating habits. She’d lost count of the number of times he came home in the middle of the night, smelling like he had been dipped in a vat of cheap perfume and then steeped in the smoke from a carton of cigarettes. It was time to move on, but to where? There wasn’t exactly a line of friends asking her to come live with them.
    Chunks of bread sizzled when Daisy dropped them into the frying pan slicked with melted butter. She poked at the spongy cubes with the stained, partially melted plastic spatula she had unearthed from the utensil drawer. The comforting scent of buttery, warm bread overpowered the usual musty odor of the basement apartment. At least dinner smelled good. Gary wouldn’t like it, but screw him. He could spend his own money on something else, chicken nuggets, a frozen burrito from a convenience store . . . whatever. Daisy tilted her head from side to side. The muscles in her neck snapped and popped. He wasn’t even home and she had already wound herself up into a ball of nerves. At least she was feeling something, as opposed to the numb emotional vacuum she had been living in. Robot girl was actually a cyborg, with a brain and heart inside the cold, bullet-proof exterior. What a delightful surprise. Gary, on the other hand, would not be thrilled with the change. Emotionless and subservient where the qualities he preferred in girlfriends.
    She scooped a tangle of spaghetti out of the pot on the back burner and deposited the pasta into an old margarine bowl. The flimsy plastic had absolutely no insulating properties. She quickly slid the worthless container onto the counter and blew on her fingers to cool them off. She was into recycling, but it was laziness on Gary’s part, instead of environmental awareness, that made their dishware a joke. He couldn’t be bothered to pick up a couple cheap, ceramic bowls from the dollar store. Daisy didn’t have enough extra money or time to do the task, so they ate out of margarine and whipped topping containers. A disposable item standing in as a pathetic substitute for the real thing. Lovely . Life was throwing all kinds of analogies for the crumbling relationship at her. She spooned warm croutons onto the spaghetti. Carbs on carbs. Store-brand pasta mixed with stale bread crisped up with the last bit of real butter. She sampled the concoction and decided some cheese would make it even better. There was a nugget of Parmesan hiding under a bag of apples in the refrigerator’s vegetable drawer. Gary loved cheese, but hated fruits and vegetables, so the precious parm had been safely hidden away for only her to enjoy. She broke off a small chunk and nibbled on it while searching through the upper cabinets for a grater. She had lived there for six