"It's not me, it's you," Annalise told him, her voice unwavering.

"Okay," Donnie said leaning back on his heels as light flakes of snow fell on his head. "I guess that's a new one." Annalise never sugar-coated anything, she was even blunter than he was.

She looked up at him, her eyes an icy blue. "I see no point in sparing your feelings. You need to hear the truth."

"Wow, you Germans are direct," he said in a lame attempt at humour.

"Save your xenophobic comments for another time," she snapped and he shrugged apologetically. "I'm not trying to be hurtful, but I won't be doing you any favours if I lie and come out with bullshit excuses as to why I'm breaking up with you."

"Fine, I get it," Donnie said wiping his forehead as the snow came down heavier, the Boston winter unforgiving.

"I'm not sure you do." Annalise looked away, pulling her coat tighter around herself. "And I'm not sure if you're ready to hear the truth, even though you need to."

He looked at her impatiently, he'd known this was coming. He'd called time on enough fledging relationships to see the signs loud and clear. The missed calls, the unanswered messages, the cancelled dates, only led to one thing. "Look if there's something you want to say then say it. I can take it, and it saves us from standing around freezing our asses off for longer than we have to."

She looked up at him, her eyebrows raised. "You don't even want to try to make this work? You're giving up just like that?"

He groaned loudly. "Give me a break, a minute ago you told me it's over."

"But you'll throw a year-long relationship away without a fight?"

"I have no clue what you want me to say." He shoved his hands in his pockets trying to warm them up. "You said it's over so I'm not gonna argue with you. I respect your opinion."

She let out a hollow laugh. "No wonder all of your relationships fail. You give up at the first hurdle."

"I'm not gonna beg." He didn't care if he was being stubborn, if it was over, it was over, there was no point in prolonging the goodbye.

"Don't you want to know where you went wrong?" Annalise asked, irritation making her accent more pronounced. "So you don't make the same mistake again."

He scoffed, "Did you mean to sound so patronising?"

She gave him an exasperated glare. "So stop being defensive."

He knew he should have walked away, she was game playing, wanting him to plead with her for a second chance. Well, that wasn't happening but he couldn't help but ask, "Okay, hit me with it, what mistake did I make?"

She tilted her head to one side, her eyes running over him as if she was savouring the moment, he almost expected her to lick her lips. "You're a mess, Donnie," she said her voice dripping with disappointment. "You are an absolute mess. Your business is failing, you're running up debt, you don't have a full day's work in you."

"Hey, business is slow this time of year," he said, his list of excuses at the ready. "Not too many people want their gardens landscaping during a snowstorm."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Your work is seasonal so you should have planned for this. I'd suggest that you diversify in the winter months but you won't because you are lazy and you like the easy life. You'd rather be out partying with your rich friends, drinking too much and sleeping it off the next day." She gave him a look that was filled with contempt. "You're wasting your life. It's boring. Do you think I enjoy spending my time with someone who is too hungover to string a sentence together?"

He felt a flash of anger. "So why were you with me in the first place? It can't have taken you a year to figure that all out?"

"Oh Donnie," she said her voice softening. "You're a good man. You're loyal, you're honest but you have lost your way in life." She stood up straighter. "I need you to go away and become a better version of yourself. Be the man I know you can be."

"And what if I don't want to?" he said refusing to acknowledge her points. "I am what I am."

She arched her eyebrows as if surprised. "You don't want to improve yourself? Are you saying you want to wake up one day, a beer-swilling forty-year-old with nothing in his life?" She shook her head. "I don't think you're happy with this day to day existence."

"Maybe not," he admitted grudgingly, there were definitely some things he had to work on. "So say I take your advice and make some changes?"

She smiled, the first real smile she had given him. "Make the changes and then we will see."

~~~

Thank you for reading, this is the first draft and the chapters are fairly short to start with.