She had returned the phone without checking it because it had gone off. Sometime in between the tears and the throwing up the battery had gone flat. She never saw it ring. She never thought of it until today.
Julius sat down. Five months had passed. Long break.
They arrested him that day and he spent the night in the cells. In the morning he had gone to Leleti's. He never knew why. But he walked in and found her with the pregnancy test and the herbs sitting on the sofa. Her door was open and that smell...that terrible smell was filling up the room.
It was like in that instant his eyes were opened. And he saw her for what she really was. All the way from her ankles that were actually dark and rough around where she squeezed her feet into her shoes to her over plucked eyebrows and her pug nose.
He was revolted. She was sitting there mouth open. He wasn't supposed to be here.
The test was negative. He didn't even sit down. He walked straight back to his car and went to tell his mother everything. Then he went for an HIV test. Negative. Then he booked a flight and left and didn't tell anyone for twenty one days, where he was.
How could he have been so stupid? Crazy woman then started texting pictures of him sleeping in her bed, in his bed, no clothes on, grinning caddishly in the car, whatever...first to him and then when she got no response she sent them to Suwi.
How do you even fix that?
Not even anywhere near his wife and he was already messing things up. Everybody told him to go beg. But that pride of his. And she had not reached out. Not even to ask him what was going on. He didn't blame her.
She watched him sit. Lump in her throat the size of an elephant's head. She couldn't speak. Again. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever think this would have happened like it had. But it had. And now here they were. She didn't know what to say so she asked how he was doing. She wasn't prepared for his tears. Or for his confession. Or for his explanation. Or for him to beg.
Every tear he cried was like a knife twisting in her heart. It didn't make any sense. Who was this woman? Where did he find her? In the convenience store at the gas station? Like, who meets a woman in a gas station? How did he leave everything they had for a woman at a gas station that he didn't know? After everything they went through? How? It just made no sense.
Sitting there watching him talk she felt herself drifting away. His mother had pleaded with her to have this meeting. It was the least she could do. But it would have to be something spectacular that he offered for her to put this all behind her and try again. All this talk about herbs. Like really?
The anger and the bile rose in her throat as the heart in his chest detached itself and sank into his belly. He could see it in her eyes. Pain. Pain. Unspeakable pain. And he couldn't do anything to fix it because he put it there.
She got up from the table, legs like jelly and ran out of the restaurant. She never saw the convertible turn the corner. Her eyes were too full of tears. All she saw was the sky above her as the impact tossed her into the air. Her eyes closed and the last thing she heard before her back hit the ground was Julius screaming her name....
To Be Continued...
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