Free Confessions of an Ugly Girl by Alice Wasser

screening my calls on your cell phone, but I really need to talk to you. Please , Sam. Please, just give me five minutes to talk to you. I know you’re angry at me, but this isn’t fair. I—”
    Sam heard the voice from the other room and was racing out to get the phone. I’d never seen him wheel that fast. He tried to grab the phone, but he had to fumble with his hands, more than I’d ever seen him fumble before. His face was bright red. He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke into the phone. “Holly,” he said in a low voice. I’d never heard him sound so angry. He was usually so cool and collected. “I don’t want you to call here again. No, I……. stop. Stop calling me. Yeah…… well, I’m going to change the number. Yeah, I don’t want to see you…… fine, please don’t call again.”
    He hung up the phone, looking as upset as I’d ever seen him. He doesn’t blush the way I do, but his ears were bright red. “Who’s Holly?” I asked, trying to sound all casual.
    “Nobody,” he said.
    I looked at him.
    He sighed. “She’s my ex-girlfriend. It didn’t end well.”
    “Oh…”
    “You don’t want to hear this story, Millie,” he said.
    “I thought we were being honest with each other.”
    He sighed again. “Fine. We were dating about a year and a half, and… I asked her to move in with me. She told me she didn’t see our relationship being a long term thing and admitted she was seeing someone else. I felt like an idiot. That was six months ago and I’m over it. End of story.”
    He was dating her for a year and a half . That’s a really long time. I read that it takes half the time of a relationship to get over the relationship. So if they broke up six months ago, he still needs another three months to be over her.
    “Were you in love with her?” I don’t know why I asked that. Apparently, I’m on some sort of mission to jeopardize my relationship.
    He shrugged. “I thought I was, but clearly I was mistaken. I’m definitely not in love with her now . In fact, I don’t want to see her ever again.” He looked at me and frowned with concern. “What happened to your finger?”
    “Nice job changing the subject.”
    “Millie, you’re dripping blood all over my counter!”
    I looked down and saw that he was right. The cut was worse than I’d thought. Sam tried to persuade me to go to the ER to get it stitched up, but I thought he was overreacting. After holding pressure on it for a while, the bleeding stopped and he got me his first aid kit so that I could bandage it up.
    We ended up ordering out Chinese food, then we made out on his couch. It was a lovely evening.
     
     
    August 18:
     
    Approximately 70% of Americans are unhappy at their jobs.
    You might not think so from my work description, but I actually really like my job. It may not be as exciting as, say, being a professional scuba diver. But it’s not like I can see myself in a job like that anyway. It’s nice to come to work, know exactly what you’re going to do that day, and find creative ways to solve problems.
    Honestly, there are a lot of parts of my job that don’t require much creativity either. But that’s okay. Sometimes it’s nice to just be able to zone out and do rote work. I find it relaxing.
    This week, my job has not been relaxing. We’re putting together a report for a large car insurance company, and I’ve been busy synthesizing the data from my team. The report should’ve been done a week ago but some unexpected problems came up, so at this point, we’re behind. It means I’ve been coming in early, leaving late, and skipping lunch this week.
    I don’t mind so much coming in early or leaving late, but I feel bad that Sam texted me the last two days, asking if I could get lunch with him, and I’ve had to beg off, explaining about the workload. He said he missed me, but he understood. Today he didn’t text me about lunch and I felt a little sad, like maybe he’d given up on me.
    Then at noon,