Dare To Love Again

Another look at my watch showed that it was more than two hours since they were supposed to meet. How long will this meeting last? What will be the end result? Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted Ann again; she hadn’t held up her end of the bargain last time. But she was the best shot I had, my only hope.

I’m sure I can get Calen to come around. He values friendship and loyalty above all else, and of the two of us, she’s the one who left, the one who walked out on him when I never have. I’ve been here the whole time, by his side, through thick and thin. My doorbell went off, and I almost jumped out of my skin as I looked towards the door like it was a foreign object.

Maybe I shouldn’t have done that last line of coke on an empty stomach, but I needed something to pick me up. I’ve been in hell ever since Calen and his mother kicked me out of his home. That’s why I’d called Ann again straight away instead of thinking of other ways to get back in Calen’s good graces.

Now I’m not so sure. Maybe I was too hasty? Maybe I should’ve concentrated on gaining his forgiveness and earning his trust again. Maybe I should’ve laid low for a while and then come back at this thing fresh. But the pain and heartache from his rejection had made me muddle-headed, and I hadn’t been thinking clearly. That’s why I’d called Ann and railed at her for not keeping up her end of the bargain.

But when I realized that she hadn’t known of her daughter’s latest move, I felt real hope again. She was pissed, almost as pissed as me, and her promise to take care of things once and for all had gotten me through the night. I opened the door to see her standing there looking more disheveled than the few times I’d seen her in the past.

“You, what are you doing…?” I wasn’t expecting the punch to the face, so didn’t brace for it or raise my arm to block it. “What the hell are you doing?” I jumped back to my feet, tasting blood in my mouth but barely feeling the sting from the blow. That was the coke’s effect, I know, but I was grateful for it all the same.

“You sold me out, you bitch.”

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you meet your bitch of a daughter at her place? I thought you said…”

“Calen Addison showed up, her husband, they were never divorced, you lied to me.”

“What? What nonsense are you saying? Of course, they’re divorced.”

“Think again, the man himself told me, and I checked in my way over here, something I should’ve done two years ago. There is no divorce on record, which means he was never going to marry you.” She had a smug look on her face as if my pain at hearing those words was somehow pleasing to her. All the rage I’ve held inside for the past twenty-four hours came boiling to the forefront, and I rushed her.

We ended up rolling around on the floor, pulling each other’s hair out and trying our best to gouge the other’s eyes out. I had one moment of clarity when I realized that I was rolling around on the floor in a most undignified way fighting a woman almost twice my age.

The realization set in, and I burst into tears. What the hell happened to my life? I heard a voice in the doorway and stopped fighting long enough to glance that way only to get a shock. I tried getting to my feet when I saw Calen standing there. It didn’t matter why he was here, “you came.”

I started to reach out to him when I made it to the door, but then I saw who else was there, and it felt like the bottom just dropped out. “What are you doing here?” His mom and Giselle were standing there, staring as if I were some anomaly they haven’t ever seen before.Calen“Nope!” I saw the intent in Dana’s eyes and blocked her when she tried getting past me to my wife. I couldn’t believe that the woman standing in front of me was the same one I’d known for the past fourteen years, give or take. She looked as if she’d aged ten years in the last day or so, and I could tell from her bloodshot eyes and the way she looked around like a cornered rodent that she was high on something.

I had no words, so I just shook my head in disgust and turned on my heel to leave. I should’ve known these two were up to something when mom nudged Giselle, but my woman is not the confrontational type, at least before today she wasn’t, so I didn’t put two and two together until she ducked under the arm I went to put around her shoulder and rushed towards the doorway where Dana was still standing hurling insults.