by Emma Vikes
The proof came two days later when I’d fallen sick at the airport all of a sudden and started throwing up. Simon had been the one who dropped me off and kissed me goodbye, yet all attempts to reach his cell to come back and get me had been futile. My boss eventually sent me back home in a cab as the flight time drew closer.
“Take care of yourself, Theresa. I’ll see you when I get back,” he had said.
I’d arrived home and walked straight into the house and up the stairs. My spinning head and disoriented eyes and ears had ensured that I hadn’t heard Simon and his partner until it was too late. Opening my room door, I saw her on top of him, with her back to me on our bed.
“Theresa!” He had gasped.
I’d turned and fled in that instant, only to find myself tumbling down the stairs moments later, before everything went blank.
Then, I’d woken up at the hospital.
For years, I yearned for children and Simon kept telling me he wasn’t ready. When I finally took in, he turned into a stranger overnight and went ahead to cheat on me. As a result, I had lost the baby.
A tear escaped my eye as the memory continued to play back in my mind.
Yesterday, when I’d sent Mike away, I’d called Marissa and told her about Simon. She had screamed bloody murder as well and was ready to catch the red eye to Chicago. She’d then asked me what Mike had done while this all raged on and I’d proceeded to tell her everything and how I’d in fact sent him packing. She’d fallen silent then.
“What is it?” I’d eventually asked, knowing she was deciding on whether it was safe to say whatever she wanted to say.
“You shouldn’t have done that, baby girl. Mike isn’t who you should be pouring your aggression on. From everything you’ve told me, he is sweet, kind and loving and has done you no wrong.”
Eventually, I’d realised where my anger was meant to be directed.
Simon!
My ex-husband deserved to be burned at the stake. He’d broken me and was responsible for the death of my baby. Then, he’d turned right round and married the same lady who had come between us. All the pent-up rage I thought I had dealt with, materialised when I’d seen him again yesterday and realised what he had done.
“That spawn of the devil played me,” I bellowed.
“I’m going to make sure he rots in hell,” I said under my breath, my decision already made as I wiped my eye.
I was going to take him back to court and sue him for every penny he was worth, citing the fact that the divorce settlement had been unfair. I did need to contact my lawyer, however, to find out how to go about it.
“You are going to burn, Simon.” I growled.
I walked to the bar and sat down on the seat Mike had vacated some moments ago. The waiter walked cautiously towards me to request for my order.
“Give me something strong.” I ordered, dismissing him.
I was definitely in the mood to drink. My chest continued to heave in anger as I remembered why I’d even come back to the bar in the first place. I’d remembered what Marissa had said the night before, and even though I’d ignored Mike all morning, I’d decided to come looking for him so we could resolve the rift that had materialised between us as a result of all this mess.
I’d admitted to myself that I’d probably been a little harsh towards him and he in fact didn’t deserve the treatment I had given him. It didn’t also make sense for there to be tension between us, seeing as we were heading for a meeting in Wisconsin. We needed to be the best representation of Alpha Consults. It would be a disaster if we lost the contract because Mike and I couldn’t settle our differences.
I’d gone to his room then to look for him. After my knocks went unanswered, I immediately assumed where he would be. Same place he had been last time when I’d knocked on his door; the bar.
I’d walked in and seen him laughing at the bar with another female, I’d flown into such a rage that by the time I was able to calm down a bit, everything that could be said had been said. And then he had done the exact opposite of what I’d expected he would do.
He’d simply stood up and walked away, not before telling me I was off the Wisconsin trip and he was sending me home.
“Men are truly scum. Not even up to a day after rejecting him, and he was already finding comfort in the arms of another women. They truly aren’t worth it.”
My drink arrived and I proceeded to drink it without asking what it was.
“Get me another.” I bellowed.
As the waiter rushed to procure my order, my phone began ringing. I pulled it out and was ready to have another go at Mike, thinking he was the one on the other end of the incoming call. The Caller ID, however, displayed a name that I wasn’t expecting.
Tony, the HR Manager from Woodrow was calling me.
“Hello?” I said as I picked the call, not bothering to hide my surprise.
“Hey, Theresa. How are you doing?” He responded.
“I’m fine,” I answered, still unsure as to the reason for the call.
“Well, a vacancy opened up and as promised, here I am calling you.”
My mouth dropped open as Tony went ahead to reel out details of the position and what it entailed.
“You don’t have to interview for the position, Theresa. If you want it and are ok with all the terms I’ve listed out, then the job is yours.”
“Wow! I...I don’t kn...know what to...to say,” I stammered.
“Just say you want it.” Tony laughed.
It took me a minute to decide.
Fuck you, Simon.
Fuck you, Simon’s wife.
Fuck you, Mike.
Fuck you, men of planet Earth.
I was done with everything and everyone.
“Yes, Tony,” I said. “I’ll take the job.”
“Awesome!” He exclaimed in excitement. “So how soon can you come in?”
CHAPTER 19
Mike
Three months later
I WAS SITTING IN MY office when my phone rang.
I’d been tempted to ignore it but that wasn’t in my habit.
I looked at the phone screen and saw it was a number that wasn’t saved on my phone. I picked the call.
“Hello! Is this Mike?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Marissa. Marissa Gonzalez. You don’t know me as we never met.”
“I know exactly who you are, Marissa. Theresa talked about you a few times. What can I do for you?”
“Oh ok,” she responded, surprised. “Well, it concerns Theresa. I was hoping we could talk.” She finished.
“Talk? You called me to talk about Theresa? Marissa, Theresa hasn’t been my concern going on three months now. What is there to talk about?”
“I know, Mike, but this is pretty serious. I wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t.”
Alarm bells began blaring in my head at the seriousness of Marissa’s tone.
Is Theresa okay? I thought.
“Well, then tell me what it is.”
“Can we talk in person? Could you come meet me at...”
“Let me stop you right there, honey.” I cut her off. “I’m not the one who wants to talk. You are. Frankly, I could care less on what this conversation is about but since I’m inclined to behave like a gentleman, I’d grant you an audience.” I lied. “However, if you expect me to leave my office during work hours to come talk about your friend, then you might as well be taking my goodwill too far. If you want to talk to me about Theresa, come meet me.”
With that, I hung up and dropped the phone on the table.
Is Theresa okay? I thought as I anchored my hands on the table and placed my chin in them.
My mind immediately drifted to the last time we’d seen each other in Chicago.
After the stunt she’d pulled, I’d barely kept my emotions in check before proceeding to leave her at the bar. Wisconsin had been another uphill task as I’d struggled to keep our spat out of my mind and remain focused on the task at hand. By the tim
e I was done with business, I was so exhausted from keeping it all in that I’d gone on a night about town. I’d ended up back in my hotel room, drunk and a complete mess.
Instead of heading back home, I’d repeated my antics from the day before, ending up drunk for the second day in a row. Finally, on the third day, I’d gotten my shit together and decided to go back home and pick the pieces of what remained of my emotional life.
All the way home, I’d worried about how I was going to face her in the office when the time came. We could have definitely gone back to being professional, I’d thought, but I’d highly doubted that was going to be the case. With the rage she was in, I was expecting a full blown confrontation when I arrived in the office and we finally saw each other.
As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about as by the time I got back, Theresa had turned in her resignation without so much as an explanation; just a generic resignation letter that had been submitted to Greg, thanking him for the opportunity to work in the company.
“What the hell happened in Chicago, Mike?” Greg had asked, in alarm.
I’d simply brushed it off by saying that nothing had happened. There was no need going into any detail as Theresa wasn’t even around to confirm or deny the story.
“So, why did she not follow you to Wisconsin? Why did she come home from Chicago while you went on ahead?” Greg had continued.
“Oh, that? She’d fallen ill on our trip.” I’d lied. “I guess the stress of the new job had finally gotten to her. I decided it best to send her home early so she could recuperate. Wisconsin, after all, wasn’t something I couldn’t handle by myself.”
Even though he’d looked like he didn’t believe my explanation, he’d finally decided to stop hounding me and drop the subject.
“Well, she’s gone. I can’t even begin to think of who we could get to fill her vacant position,” he said in conclusion as he walked out of my office that morning, still holding Theresa’s resignation letter.
News had later filtered into the company that she had returned back to her former company. All this had been three months ago and it had been one hell of an emotional roller coaster. I wasn’t about to repeat it all over again.
CHAPTER 20
Theresa
AS THE CALL ENDED, I looked at Marissa with tears in my eyes. She was sitting on the opposite side of my table in the office and had in fact placed the phone on speaker as she talked with Mike.
“Truly, I’ve lost him.” I cried.
“Relax, girl. We’ll find a way to rectify this,” she responded, reassuringly.
“Rectify this? The man couldn’t care less about me. He didn’t even flinch when you told him it was an emergency.”
Theresa laughed then. “You know, for a woman who has men all around her, you seem to know next to nothing about them.”
“What do you mean?” I sniffed back tears.
“I mean, he still cares, silly.”
“Did you hear the conversation I just listened to? Or were you probably listening to another conversation outside this room? The man hates me. He’s so angry he could barely entertain the conversation.” I shouted almost at the top of my voice.
“Exactly, honey. He’s angry because he still cares. If he didn’t, what you would have heard was indifference. Good Lord, you better keep up. All we have to do now is find a way to remind him of his love for you.”
“And how do we do that?” I asked with so much hope and expectation.
Marissa didn’t respond immediately. She paused to look out the office window as she mulled over her thoughts.
“Get up! Take the day off. We are going to his office,” she finally said, turning to look at me
As she pulled me out of my office and into the car, I couldn’t help but feel some level of hope.
Sometime after the first week of leaving Alpha Consults, I’d realised what a fool I’d been to Mike. However, it had taken me about a month to admit to Marissa that I’d messed it all up. My best friend had been right all along. Mike was God sent and yet, I’d let my rage lead me into pushing him away.
“So, what are you going to do?” Marissa had asked me constantly for two months as I pretended that I’d get around to doing something about it, while citing one excuse or another. The truth is I knew how I’d treated him, and I was scared that he was going to reject me if I dared approach. Yet with each passing day, I yearned to be in his arms again.
Suddenly, Marissa had burst into my office this morning that she’d seen Mike dropping off someone and kissing the lady before driving off. Obviously she hadn’t met him in person, but from the pictures I’d shown her, she’d claimed to have recognised him. I immediately flew into a panic attack as I realised I might have waited too long to set things right with him. Now, I was going to lose him to someone else all because I couldn’t find the courage to face my fear of rejection and say sorry. That was what had resulted in the brainstorming session on how best to handle this which eventually led to the call sometime around noon.
Now, Marissa was speeding towards his office with me strapped in the passenger seat. We were going to get back my man.
CHAPTER 21
Mike
AS SOON AS I STEPPED out of my meeting in the conference room, my secretary told me that a Marissa Gonzalez was waiting for me in my office.
I’d said she should come meet me if she wanted to talk about her friend Theresa, but I honestly hadn’t expected her to show up today seeing as we had talked around noon.
As I walked towards the office, my pace quickened. The emergency was probably more serious than I had initially thought. Just as I arrived at my office door, it hit me that my secretary had allowed Marissa to sit in my office and not in the waiting area. I paused to wonder for a bit before reaching out for my door handle.
In any case, I’d told Marissa to come meet me and she had done just that. Whatever the matter was with Theresa, I was going to give the best friend an audience and help in any way I could.
As soon as I walked into my office, I instantly knew why my secretary had let Marissa in. My heart stopped in my chest. Standing beside Marissa was Theresa. She’d disguised her face pretty well with a hoodie and sunglasses, but at some point, she must have revealed her identity to my secretary, causing the lady to let her in.
I shut the door quietly, and turned to face the two unwanted guests.
“What the hell is this?” I muttered under my breath.
“This is the emergency, Mike. Theresa is going crazy without you and she’s come to plead for your forgiveness,” Marissa said.
On cue, Theresa went down on her knees and removed the shades.
“Baby, I’m so sorry. I was so angry and I let my anger destroy what we shared.” Theresa lamented. She continued to apologise as the tears began rolling down her cheeks. From the redness in her eyes, I knew she had been crying far longer than I could care to imagine. Her face was also puffy and bloated with grief.
I smiled belligerently and looked her dead in the eye. “I’m not going to say this more than once.” I growled under my breath and with as much self-control as I could muster. “I want you to get up and get the fuck out of my office before I call security.”
A certain dread settled all around the room. Looking into my eyes, Theresa could see and tell that I meant every word I’d said. Marissa had wanted to comment as well but by the time she’d seen the look plastered on my face, she’d decided to stay silent. Still none of them moved; Theresa remaining on her knees and Marissa standing behind her. The tears continued to flow freely down her cheeks as Marissa massaged her shoulder from behind.
After what seemed like an eternity, I walked towards my desk and picked up the phone.
“Mike, please?” Theresa whispered. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry.”
“Yes. Get me the security desk,” I said coldly into the phone, directing my secretary to patch me to security. Some dark part of me wished the two of them would still remain motionless, long enough for
the security personnel to get to my office. The opportunity to embarrass her as she’d embarrassed me gave me some sickly pleasure. However, the sane part of me prevailed and I realised I was acting from a place of pain, just as she had in Chicago. I still wanted her out of my office and my immediate space.
Finally, Marissa bent over and pulled Theresa to her feet just as the security office answered. I stayed silent as I watched Marissa encourage her friend out of the office, even as the personnel on the other end of the line kept speaking into my ear. As they reached the door, I finally spoke into the phone in response. “Never mind, it’s been handled.” My voice was even colder than I’d anticipated.
Thirty minutes after they’d left, I was still trying to concentrate on work, without success. I finally picked up my bag and headed out my door.
“If Mr. Kline comes looking for me, tell him I had to go attend to something. I won’t be coming back into the office today. See you tomorrow,” I said as I walked past my secretary’s table.
After leaving the office, I drove aimlessly around town for over an hour before deciding I should head home. Theresa’s reappearance had rocked my world to its roots. Just as I thought I was finally getting over her and what happened, she’d surfaced again to torture me.
As I gunned the vehicle in the direction of home, I continued to justify my decision to kick her out of my office. I had barely survived the mess that had occurred as a result of me going against the rules to date a co-worker. I counted myself lucky. It could have been worse after all.
“Never again, Mike.” I swore.
Don’t worry, bud. You did the right thing. Theresa is in your past and should stay there. I convinced myself.
“Let’s get home and put this day behind us,” I muttered, already anticipating the bottle of wine I was going to open in a bid to relax.
CHAPTER 22
Theresa
I CRIED ALL THE WAY, even as clouds began to form in the skies.
