“I’m so sorry to bother you, Josh. I’m just having a really hard day. Christmas is so close, and I feel so alone. Can’t we just meet for lunch, please?”
I took a deep breath and looked out toward the pool. As my eyes locked on to the lounge chair where Heather and I had made love the day before, I smiled. I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding in.
“No, Lynda, we can’t meet for lunch. You have your family. You’ll be fine. You need to get out and meet someone. ”
“I don’t want to meet anyone else.
What we had was such a good thing. You know it was. ”
“No, what we had was nothing, Lynda. You knew from the beginning that I loved Heather. I’m tired of having this conversation with you. Listen, I need to go. You’re gonna be okay, trust me. Please just get out there and look for someone. You’re a beautiful girl, and I promise that you’ll have no problem finding someone. ”
When I turned around, I found Heather leaning up against the door. She had obviously been listening to me.
Fuck me. “Listen, I have to go and get ready for a Christmas party. Later. ” As I hung up the phone, I started to walk toward Heather.
She put up her hand to stop me from coming closer. “You felt the need to come outside to talk to her? How often do you sneak away to talk to her on the phone, Josh?”
“Heather, I know it upsets you, so—”
“So, you snuck outside? Why can’t you see that this girl is playing you? This whole feel-sorry-for-me shit is getting old. ” Heather turned and began heading back into the house.
“Heather, wait. I’m trying the best I can here,” I said.
She stopped immediately and spun around to look at me. The expression on her face told me that I had just said something very wrong.
“You’re trying your best? No, you’re not trying your best. When she calls, you drop everything to comfort her, and she knows it. You need to ignore her. I’m tired of this, Josh. I’m ready to move on and leave all of that behind, but we can’t. Every other week, she calls you with some sort of breakdown. She’s lying to you. Why can’t you see that?”
I pushed my hands through my hair as I let out a long breath. I glanced over at the clock. My parents would be home any second, and the last thing I wanted was to be fighting with Heather when they walked in.
“Okay, Heather. You’re right. I need to learn to just ignore her. I care about her though, and I worry, so—”
Her mouth dropped open as she shot me the dirtiest look.
Oh fuck.
“What? You care about her?”
Jesus H. Christ! I can’t believe I just said that. “Okay, this is getting fucking ridiculous, Heather. I love you. I’ll only ever love you. I want to be with only you. Why are you so fucking jealous over someone who’s only a friend?” I shouted.
I watched as tears began pooling in her eyes before she lowered her head. Oh, holy shit. Why did I just yell at her? I was nervous about proposing to her tonight, and I was taking it out on her.
She started to shake her head as she looked back up at me. “She’ll never go away, will she, Josh? How would you feel if I talked to Jerry on the phone all the time? If I told him how handsome he was? If I snuck outside to talk to him? If I told you I still cared about him?” Heather asked as she tried to hold in her sobs.
“Baby, I meant to say, I cared…as in past tense. I feel nothing for Lynda. I just worry that she’ll do something stupid,” I said as I moved closer to Heather.
“She. Is. Not. Your. Problem. The problem you have right now, Josh, is the fact that you can’t open your eyes and see she’s coming between us. She’s doing the very thing she set out to do the day we walked into that hospital room together. ”
“Heather, Lynda is not trying to keep us apart. That’s just stupid. Why do you keep saying that?” I asked as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Jesus. My whole world just stopped at the sight of that tear.
“Whether you want to see it or not, that’s exactly what she’s doing. ” Heather turned and walked inside and then made her way upstairs.
Just then, I heard my parents, so I went inside to meet them. I watched as my mother and father came into the kitchen, laughing. I put on a smile, trying to act like nothing was wrong.
“Josh, darling! Is Heather here also?” my mother asked, looking toward the family room.
“Uh, yeah. She’s upstairs, trying to figure out what to wear for the party. ” I glanced at my father, who was giving me a knowing look. How the hell does he know when I’m putting up a show?