Callie's Heartbreak
Callie’s POV:
Every Monday afternoon Stefan would leave his office for a late lunch, meeting me at our usual meeting place at the Motel 6 on Gretna Street. It wasn’t an ideal location, but this was slowly becoming ‘our’ place. Each meeting had become more passionate than the last, and I knew he was slowly beginning to forget about her. I had always asked him if she was beautiful, and I often wondered if it was she he’d be thinking about when we were intimate.
“Callie, forget about her. Of course she’s beautiful, she’s my wife. She doesn’t please me like you do,” he said as he caressed my neck into his strong hands. The warmth of his blood heated through me to my core, and I could feel his heart pounding through his skin.
“I’m falling in love with you,” I tried to catch my breath, “I know we always promised each other this would go no further than our casual hook-ups, but.”
Before I could finish my profound speech confessing my love for him, he had leaned down and sunk his lips into mine. Fireworks were sounding off all around me, and in the moment I felt weightless. He lifted me into his arms, wrapping my legs around his broad waistline, and making his way back to the bed. Sinking me down gently as he began leaving a trail of kisses from my lips, to my neck, and below.
I awoke from my lucid dream drenched with cool sweat droplets on my body, mascara was smeared onto my pillowcase from the tears of yesterday. My head pounded from the hangover that I lacked, my eyes puffy and bloodshot red. I felt the quenching of thirst from a long night of dehydrating my body from the excessive crying.
Reaching over I scanned my hand onto the bedside table in search of my phone, hoping to find a message from Stefan illuminating on the screen. To my surprise however, there was nothing. He wouldn’t return my calls, and my text messages remained unanswered. I would call, listen to four rings, followed by the pick up of the receiver repeating the same haunting message:
We’re sorry, but the person you are trying to reach is not available.
At the tone, please record your message.
When you are finished recording simply hang up, or press one for more options.
I had stopped listening to the message after the third attempt, each time becoming more heartbreaking than the last. My mind was speculating over everything that was said, and the words I had left unspoken.
What did I do wrong?
Out of nowhere I found myself texting my best friend, Melanie, at a desperate attempt to lure myself away from the memories that were haunting me from the inside of my head.
I need you, it’s urgent. –Cal
Within twenty minutes I heard the feminine tapping on my front door, already knowing who was standing out there in the apartment hallway. She didn’t leave any breaks within her knocks, she already knew I was in desperate need of her company by the urgency of the message. I opened the door to find her standing there with DVD’s, and unforeseen amounts of chocolate and other sweets.
“Saddle up, girlfriend! I’ve got everything needed to cushion the blow of a heartbreak. Romantic comedies and junk food to the rescue,” she eagerly welcomed herself into the apartment, and rested the contents in her arms over the counter space.
The first DVD she decided to pop in was The Notebook, and I tried my hardest to concentrate but the move was nauseating. Just last week that was the love I had shared for Stefan, one that could withstand time. That was the love I was clinging to.
“This is your favorite,” Melanie said as she pushed the pause button, pausing the movie on the infamous boat scene. She rotated herself to face me crossing her legs onto the sofa. I could feel her eyes like a pair of daggers staring right through me on the hunt for answers, “Callie, I’m not going to let you sit here and sulk over a man that wasn’t rightfully yours. He’s married, what if he told his wife?”
I shook my head denying the coldhearted truth because it wasn’t something I wanted to believe was true, “He wouldn’t do that. He was never going to tell her, and said he didn’t want to hurt her.”
In a gawking manner Melanie began clapping her hands, “Another douchebag to add to the books for you, Callie! He was thinking with the wrong head, and saw you for a piece of ass. He used you to get what he wanted out of you, as soon as he did he tossed you to the curb. It’s the same repeated cycle with every man you meet. Not wanting to hurt her isn’t a credible excuse to have an affair with another woman, there’s marriage counseling to fix that issue. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute instead of being selfish.”
I was in shock and sat there with my mouth gaped open, “Are you taking her side? You’re supposed to be my friend, you’re not supposed to be sitting here and judging me for my actions. Melanie, you don’t understand. Last week I told this man I loved him, I made the biggest mistake in doing so. We had one agreement from the very beginning, no strings attached. We would meet, hook up, go our separate paths. Casual and spontaneous sex, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
She pulled me into her and wrapped me in an embrace running her fingers through my obscenely knotted hair. I could feel the burning in my eyes as tears began to flood the ducts. Her breath brushed my ear as she whispered, “It’s going to be alright, Callie. You’re going to get through this.”
Like a waterfall the tears began flooding my face almost as quickly as they were forming. I could feel my chest tightening as I wept, and it slowly became harder for me to breathe as I wept into her shoulder uncontrollably.
She kept her arm around me for the remainder of the evening, eventually I found it within myself to calm down. We sat through the rest of the romantic comedies she had desired, the remnants of the junk food scattered across the coffee table as the clock drew later into the evening.
The credits came across the screen of the final film and I caught her bringing herself up from the sofa from the corner of my eye, giving herself one good body stretch before she turned her head over her shoulder.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay the night?” She asked with a concerned look still spread across her face, “I know you need me and I don’t mind calling in sick from work tomorrow.”
I shook my head and flashed her a fake reassuring smile, “No, you’ve done enough. I’ll be alright. It’s just another heartbreak to write about in the books. Maybe I’ll make a movie out of this one.”
She gave a slight chuckle as she gathered the DVD’s into her arms and made her way to the door, opening it and beginning her exit into the hallway after flashing a farewell smile in my direction. She brought the door to a close softly, and I was once again left alone to be haunted by the memories Stefan had left me clinging to for dear life. I stared at my ceiling reminiscing over everything that once way, and everything that we were. I laid there trying to find a loophole and understand where I had went wrong, but I came up empty.
The sex was passionate.
The kisses were passionate.
The conversations were passionate.
The only common denominator was her.
I had caught faint glimpses of her a few times before through a polaroid Stefan would keep in the slip of his wallet. Porcelain skin, dark hair, a clear complexion, and golden brown eyes that were enough to lure any man in. I knew what he had seen in her, and for that I didn’t blame him. I envied her from time to time. I found myself wanting to be her laying beside a man as perfect as Stefan; a perfect 6”3, broad shouldered, tattoo sleeves casted over both muscular arms, his back covered in one solid tattoo piece. His hair was jet black, always slicked to one side, and the back kept near bald. His beard was never longer than a slight stubble. His muscular tone was enough for everyone to wonder how someone so busy could manage to find the time for a decent workout. Even so, there wasn’t a moment he didn’t keep himself perfectly toned. In the end however, I could see why a man as perfect as he would’ve wound up with a woman as equally perfect as her. She didn’t see it that way, not with the way he had always described her:
“Katherine isn’t you. She doesn’t see the good in anyone in front of her, only the good that’s in herself. When I married Katherine, things were different. We were passionate about one another, and had plans for the future. We wanted the American dream; buy a big piece of land, build a house from the ground up surrounded by white picket fences, and have a couple of kids. I was going to retire by the time I was forty, and we were going to travel the world when the kids flew the nest. After the wedding everything changed. I was never home much, my job was demanding and it built a wedge in our marriage. When I was home Katherine wouldn’t notice my cravings for her. I would try everything to gather her attention; breakfast in bed, spontaneous showers, showering her with gifts, love and affection. All of my attempts, every last one, shot down as if I were just her husband for the label. I wasn’t her husband in the bedroom, and then I met you.”
I fell into a deep slumber almost as deep as I had been in thought. I knew the only way I would see him again was in my dreams, and I found myself craving the lucid dreams. Tonight however I was haunted by an endless sea of blackness. There weren’t the captivating memories of the sex with Stefan, instead I was engulfed by the darkness. It was as if as fast as he had disappeared, my mind was forgetting him also.
