Free PullMyHair by Kimberly Kaye Terry

loud enough for Greg to hear.
    The look on his handsome face was as though someone had
kicked him in the teeth.
    Liza didn’t know what to say or do, so she remained silent.
She had no answer for him, because she didn’t have an answer for herself. The
silence stretched out until it was uncomfortable.
    Eventually Greg stood up from the table, glancing down at
her bent head as he did so.
    “I’m late. Renita’s meeting me at the courthouse for jury
selection,” he said. She resisted the urge to say “Screw, Renita”. It wasn’t
the paralegal’s fault her marriage was jacked up. It was hers.
    “Can we meet for lunch?” she asked instead.
    “I’m sorry Li, I can’t break away. This will take most of
the day. I’ll try and get home early,” was all that he could promise her.
    Liza didn’t say anything more, and when he kissed her on top
of the head, she simply kept her head down.
    Left alone in the kitchen, she turned the television off, no
longer interested in watching any of her beloved judges dispense their
reality-show justice to a bunch of wannabe stars.
    She rose from the table and cleared away the small dishes,
wiped the counter and left the kitchen. A nice workout was what she needed, she
decided and ran up to her bedroom to put on her workout gear, and laced on her
latest custom Nike running shoes. She tied the house key to her laces, just as
she used to do in high school, before she left the house and took off running.
    There was nothing like a good run to help her try and clear
her head. She had a membership at their social club’s fitness center, but for
some reason, Liza had never felt comfortable there. It always seemed that the
women were constantly measuring themselves against one another. Eyeing each
other’s workout gear, making sure the labels was designer.
    Designer label-loving hussy that she admitted to being, Liza
had a bit of a problem with making sure she had the latest and greatest designs
for something she was going to sweat and funk out during the course of her
workout.
    Besides, being outside watching the scenery go by as she
paced her run was more fulfilling and exhilarating than any elliptical machine
could ever be. It gave her a rush of endorphins like no other.
    As she ran, her thoughts traveled back to her marriage and
her husband. She had no idea where they’d gone wrong.
    Scratch that. Even to herself she couldn’t lie.
    She knew damn well where they’d gone wrong. And while she
didn’t blame herself for everything, she was honest enough to admit that the
majority of the fault lay with her.
    When she and Greg had first gotten married, she was reticent
in telling him about what her life had been like growing up. She avoided
thinking about it herself for the most part. Throughout their short engagement,
she’d always managed to avoid in-depth talks about her childhood, choosing to
gloss over the neglect and poverty.
    Sure, he knew that she’d grown up as an only child of a
single parent and that times had been hard. He also knew that her mother left
for parts unknown soon after Liza graduated high school and left for college.
And as hard as it was for her best friend to understand, Greg had never pressed
her about information she didn’t want to give. He seemed to be okay with the
fact that she rarely spoke of her life before she started college. So, it had
been relatively easy not to discuss those things she preferred stay in the
past.
    The topic of her youth, her mother and the effect it had on
her were topics that she never spoke about. Not to anyone. It was a depressing
time, she was over it; it didn’t define who she was now, so why talk about it?
    She made it to the outside running track and took off
running, top speed. Her fast clip eventually slowed as her thoughts inevitable
went to her mother. She hadn’t spoken to her in over five years. Not really
talked.
    She would get the occasional phone call once or twice a year
at best. Her mother would ask her for