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I slough it off after a moment, deciding I have better things to put my mind on right now. Like how much Tommy seems to be enjoying the chocolate cake. He’s moved on from the cheese and bread and has started to eat some of his dessert first. Something I go ahead and join him in. Might as well have something sweet in me to balance all the bitter in my head.
But, as I’m about to find out, this bit of sweetness is not meant to last. And that’s because my cell phone rings, and with Dennis’s ring tone.
“Hello?” This is all I say, as I rush out of the cafeteria, embarrassed at having to leave Tommy alone at the table. On my way out, I see Vanacore strolling my way. I give her a wide berth, holding the phone closer to me. “What is the meaning of this? Totally blowing me off this morning, and then calling me now?” I lower my voice a bit more, though it’s exceedingly hard to do since I’m feeling angry. I also remember that accidental voice message he left me a few days ago.
People are staring at me like I’m crazy as I’m jogging and speaking into the phone, but I don’t give a fuck. I push my way out of one of the side doors near the cafeteria. This one spits me out in a more recreational area near the office. A parklike setting Kane and his crew had designed recently so that we would all have a relaxing place to be during our breaks.
“I’m sorry, Melissa.” Dennis sighs as if I’m the one inconveniencing him with my attitude. “I’m sorry I missed our date.” I hate the scorn he puts on that word. Anyone who is truly sorry about missing a connection like that shouldn’t have the ability to say it that way.
Angry tears spring to my eyes. Now I’m thinking about leaving Tommy at the cafeteria table with questions in his eyes, and Vanacore strolling his way. “No, you’re not sorry. You’re not sorry you missed our date. You can even say that word without mocking me!” At this, I hear a door behind me open. I see Isabella coming through it. She waves at me, but I don’t bother to wave back. Instead, I turn my back to her and continue, “If you were sorry, as sorry as you claim, you couldn’t leave me hanging there without even an explanation this morning!”
“Melissa!” Dennis snaps at me using his angry, fatherly tone with me. For a moment, it stops my tirade. “Something came up at work, all right?” He sighs. Then growls. “I’m sorry about it, but by the time our date came around, I couldn’t get word to you!”
“You couldn’t send me a text?” I squeak this out, feeling more tears flowing. There’s enough now to mark my cheeks, with cold, betrayed lines.
Dennis sighs, growls again.
“What were you so busy with,”— or who — “that you couldn’t send me a simple, quick text? Something! Anything to let me know you wouldn’t be there!”
“You’re right.” Dennis sounds bored, not sorry. “I should’ve done at least that much. But I didn’t think you were so sensitive as to need that much reassuring, Melissa. See? America’s made you oversensitive and soft. Unable to deal with the unexpected.”
Through all this, I hold my jaw so tight I’m afraid it’s going to break. There are so many things I want to say to him, but I don’t bother with any of those. Instead, I go straight for the throat.
“I heard her,” I growl through my teeth.
“What?”
I know he heard me, he just doesn’t want to believe what I said.
“I. Heard. Her. I heard her, Dennis,” I say, hoping my teeth don’t break into dust from the pressure I’m putting on them. “Who is she?”
“Who is who?” he asks as if I’m the one who’s lost her mind.
“Another woman. Your phone called me when you didn’t know, and I heard her on there with you. Someone flirting with you, Dennis,” I say, not caring how beside myself I sound or look.
Dennis doesn’t answer me. He doesn’t admit or deny what I’ve just said. When he does speak, it’s only to say, “She’s someone I work with. Another model.”
“I bet she is someone you work with,” I seethe.
“Stop.”
I stop, not sure what I’m feeling at the moment. Heartless or breathless.
“This is why I can’t do this long-distance thing with you anymore, Melissa.”
The grip on my phone shifts. Can’t do this long-distance thing? What the hell? Where the hell is this coming from? Though my mind is rattled by this admission, my heart isn’t. It’s been expecting something like this, but it didn’t know it until he said something.
“This is why I can’t keep doing this kind of relationship. Because you get out of your mind the minute I’m not exactly where you expect me to be exactly when you expect me.”
