2020-03-31 - The Purge

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : Hey, Easton, I was wondering if I could stop by your place later. I have stuff that I need to return to you. Send me an address.

The day after her conversation with Easton, she is in her home office, and she is supposed to be drafting up contracts for Byron, leasing agreements for the casino’s commercial spaces, when it occurs to Katherine that there is something she needs to do now that she and Easton are at least on speaking terms.

Walking into her bedroom, she decides to get rid of everything that has any sort of connection to Easton. It's mostly just t-shirts, hoodies, things she's stolen out of his closet over the years. But Katherine knows they're there, and she needs to clear every piece of evidence that points to her former relationship with him. It's a course of action, a way to truly start over.

With each piece of her past thrown out of the closet and onto the pile, she starts to feel lighter and lighter. Every stolen t-shirt, every borrowed hoodie, and even stuffed animals given as gifts. She wants it all gone.

She eventually picks up each item and places it in a plastic bin she has from her initial move to Gray Harbor.

There is one more thing to add to the bin and it’s the small box that she keeps in her side table drawer, largely ignored. When she pulls it out, Katherine tries to focus on its contents as she flips the box open to reveal the diamond engagement ring that Easton had given her prior to his deployment to Afghanistan.

At first, she doesn’t feel anything just by looking at the ring. Then she remembers that she actually has to be touching the item she is reading, so she pulls the ring out of the box and places it in the palm of her hand.

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : Bayside Apartments, #400. Feel free to leave it with the doorman if I'm out. Is it a box of ashes?

With a quiet sigh, Katherine places the ring back in the box as her phone goes off and she picks up her phone to check it, her fingers responding quickly.

(TXT to Easton) Katherine : No, it’s not. Will you be home this afternoon?

(TXT to Katherine) Easton : I'm at the bar until close tonight.

Katherine sets the phone down again and pulls something else out of the drawer she had the ring in, a note pad and a pen. On the top page, she scribbles something down on the first page in her elegant cursive handwriting.

This belongs to the girl who completes your heart. That girl isn’t me anymore. I’m not sure she ever was. - Kate

She places the ring box and the note at the top of the pile of shirts in the plastic bin.

One more glance at her phone, and Katherine knows what to do next. At least she thinks she does.

However, when the time comes that she knows that Easton is meant to be returning home, Katherine chickens out, leaving the bin at his apartment door before bolting, rushing down the stairs until she finds safety one floor below, in her apartment.