Friday writing prompt: Please yourself

I haven't actually seen red since I was 17 but I felt like maybe I should be as Sarah dramatically glided out of the store, perhaps just a little faster than could be called 'dignified'.

Every once in a while I realize my people pleasing has tipped over into just being manipulated. It's never a pretty epiphany. It usually lands somewhere between an instant ick and discovering that the woman you're dating for three months has been seeing someone else the entire time. Today was a little bit more of the latter end of the spectrum. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was angry. And maybe a little mean. It was definitely final.

"Wow," Jane said, "almost nobody ever tells her 'no'".

After a very pregnant pause in which Jane was clearly measuring me for... something... perhaps a coffin, she started to follow Sarah out the door but looking and talking over her shoulder as she did so.

"Sarah's out of town this weekend but the rest of us are going to be down at the Reservoir on Friday night. You should come."

She did a little half-spin at the door to push it open with her hands and hips, so she can make eye contact and add,

"You should bring a suit... Or not."

And with a wink, she was gone. Leaving me standing in a store I hadn't wanted to come into in the first place.
 
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