by Mariah Lynde
In that moment, I was too stunned to say a word. Pain lanced through me at the deliberate jab. While Teena Hawthorne thought the asshole had walked on water, it had only been because he kissed her ass. Considering her own situation, she had to have been more than aware of just what I had experienced and now she used that as a weapon. By calling me out on Cal’s presence in my home and associating me with one of the things I’d come to hate most, she had effectively sent me reeling.
I couldn’t speak. Shocked into stillness by the sheer pain that had risen with the harsh and somewhat devastating reminder of my past, I stood frozen at Cal’s side.
Regret for my little ruse began to rip through me while all my pride and courage dissipated under the reminder that I’d never be seen as good enough. Not for a job, not for a relationship, not for life – who was I kidding? I would never truly be seen as anything more than something people settled for.
At least, that was how I had come to perceive it. My ego had taken a seriously blow with Jim, one that I hadn’t truly recovered from. It was a healing scar that Teena Hawthorne had just viciously torn open and pulled the scab from, leaving me naked, exposed, and vulnerable.
Without a word, I moved to step away from Cal, moving up the open sidewalk and away from Teena Hawthorne’s scathing glare. Her accusations ringing in my ears, I sought the safety and solitude of my small duplex apartment, intent on leaving the rest of the world behind so I could lick my wounds in private.
Just as I moved to pull away, I turned my back on the pair with every intention of slamming the door when I heard Cal speak.
“That’s quite enough, Ms. Hawthorne.” Cal’s voice had gone from sultry baritone, to icy steel in a flash that even brought me up short so that I paused in mid-step to turn and look at him. Gray eyes had darkened to look like molten quicksilver as he fastened his gaze on the woman in front of us.
“Excuse me?” Her voice rose an octave to take on a shrill note that made my skin crawl.
“You heard me the first time. I said that was enough.” This time he put emphasis on the last word in the sentence and it sounded through the air with enough authority I could have sworn a sonic boom had gone off. Even Teena Hawthorne had stilled in the wake of that command and for a brief moment, Cal Mitty had impressed the ever living shit out of me. Then he continued and I found myself watching the scene before me unfold like it was compulsory.
“I don’t know how it is you think things in this development should run, but your little display here leaves a lot to be desired. Tell me…is this complex full of tenants? Is that why you’re so gung ho on insulting and demeaning people that use your rental units? If so, I’m sure that my company can find a more suitable place for Miss Warren here to live that is closer to where she works.” His eyes narrowed on Teena Hawthorne like a sniper locking onto its target. Each word delivered with a small hint of cool, steely authority that brooked no argument.
“I…Well I mean…”
“You mean…what exactly? Did it never occur to you that by not only insulting Miss Warren, you in turn, just insinuated that I was trading sexual favors with an employee just so she could keep her job? As I’m sure you are aware, such accusations are something business minded people have to be wary of. In cases where such accusations are made and unsubstantiated there are consequences of a monetary kind. Now, is that really something you want to deal with? I can assure you, the lawyers at the McGinley Corporation are very good at their jobs.”
Watching Teena Hawthorne actually cower in the face of Cal’s words had a little of my angst with him fading. Never, in all the years I had lived here, had I seen the woman look anything less than formidable even when she was pissed off. Now, in the wake of Cal’s seemingly vicious attack on my behalf, her bluster and blow had all but faded.
“I…didn’t m-m-mean any insult by it. Just a mere j-joke in passing, t-t-that’s all.” Each word was a stumbled admittance of guilt. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Teena Hawthorne had just been thoroughly hobbled in our battle of wills. While it hadn’t been by my hand, the fact that anyone was doing so on my behalf made me feel a little better than I normally did.
“Oh, you meant something by it. No manager or owner in their right mind would ever insult a tenant and their guest with such crude jokes. I believe, Ms. Hawthorne, that you should take a nice long look at your behavior and correct the issues before someone far less generous than I takes you to the bank for it.” While I honestly thought there was absolutely nothing else that he could have done to make this encounter go any better for me, it seemed Cal Mitty had one surprise left.
Turning on his heel, he moved to walk up to where I stood just outside my door. His hand lifted to grip my arm just near the elbow as he gave a smile and seemingly dismissed Teena Hawthorne entirely. Then he spoke, just loud enough that he knew his words would be overheard, but low enough that it made it obvious his words were part of a private conversation that no one else should interrupt.
“Let’s say we get inside and forget this nonsense over a nice glass of tea, hmm?”
Just like that, the whole of the situation was brought to an end and I was being led back into my house like some marionette dancing on a puppeteer’s strings. There were a million and one reasons I should have been insulted, but at that moment I was content to just bask in my momentary glory at finally having been rescued from the clutches of evil by someone other than myself.
Chapter Eighteen - …No, seriously. I mean it…
Even I can admit that the little foray with Teena Hawthorne outside my apartment had been unwarranted. However, there were more important matters at hand. Of the million and one things I now had to consider, there was of course the presence of the man beside me.
Cal Mitty, for all his self-confident posturing, had just done me a solid. Even though he happened to be stuck in this situation and dragged me into it over his own issues was something I could dismiss for the moment. While it would likely mean little in the end of things, for a brief moment while the world was still normal, he had given Ms. Hawthorne a shovel full of her own medicine on my behalf.
That deserved a night’s respite at the very least.
While I happened to be considering that very thing, I heard the door to my apartment click shut behind me. Realizing that Cal had taken it upon himself to escort us inside my small apartment, my brain slowly clicked back into gear to immediately initiate survival mode. In a move that would likely give anyone whiplash, I jumped away from Cal’s side and moved to the kitchen to look for anything to distract me from his presence in my home.
“So, is that woman always that way with you?” The question, though softly spoken seemed sincere enough. Turning my head to look at him, I could see that he was watching me just as intently as he had been the woman he’d just served a heaping amount of karma to.
“Pretty much, yeah. She’s never liked me but listening to her you could have sworn my ex walked on water.” I shrugged a little and peered back down at the sink, “So, anything you’re allergic to?”
“Nah, I’m lucky in that regard.” He answered. I should have known that he wouldn’t leave things at that. Despite my subtle subject change he returned to his previous line of questioning, “So, you were married?”
“Pfft.” I waved a hand in dismissal, “Hell no. Ex-Boyfriend not husband, thank god. That would have been a horrific experience.” I shuddered as if to underline the absolute atrocity that would have been. Sadly, Cal did not take the hint and continued on with his interrogation.
“Ah, so it’s a recent breakup. No wonder you’ve not been in the best of moods.” His summarization had me lifting my head to peer up at him. An amused smile curled my lips as I propped myself up against the counter.
“Not as recent as all that.” Moving to cross my arms over my chest as I smirked, “It’s been two years and Jim has since moved on to his next couple of girlfriend’s I’d imagine.”
“You don’t know?” Cal stared at me aghast.
/> “Not really, when we were done, we were done. I preferred cutting him out completely and getting on with my life then dealing with his bullshit.” Shrugging, I turned away from him to move towards the fridge. Well, an unexpected guest left me no choice in the matter - seemed food would indeed be on the night’s agenda.
“That’s kind of harsh. I mean, it can’t have been so bad that you want to sentence the guy to exile, can it?” Again Cal continued with the needling questions to appease his curiosity. I had half a mind to dress him down again but thought better of it.
“It is well deserved. Like I said, Ms. Hawthorne only acts like Jim was a saint. Our relationship ended because I found out that he’d been cheating on me for months. So, instead of going through the whole dramatic fight about choosing her or me and listening to him bemoan his fate of not knowing what he wanted, I told him to get out.” Turning to grab a pot from underneath the counter, I moved towards the sink, only then to realize that Cal Mitty was staring at me like I’d grown two heads, “What?”
“Nothing…I…wow, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” A flush of red entered his cheeks and I honestly wanted to chuckle. The only reason I held off happened to be because I didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable than he already was. When people were uncomfortable, they were on edge. The more high strung they got the more the situation would deteriorate. If I had to endure his presence in my house for the night, then I damn sure wasn’t going to make it any harder on either of us.
“It’s fine. I’ll be honest, I don’t exactly telegraph my past experiences because quite frankly, people will make assumptions whether they have the facts or not. More than that, it’s not really anyone else’s business anyway.” Shrugging a little while I filled the pot with water, I turned to peer at Cal to give a weak smile.
“Yeah, that’s true. People can never know where you’re coming from unless they’ve walked a mile in your shoes…so to speak.” He gave the concession over in a soft tone of voice that had me looking up at him a little more intently. I could see the dark emotions that were playing themselves out across his features and it gave me pause.
“How long ago was your breakup?” I asked the question without thinking. I recognized that look that he wore. It was a look that said you were still trying to figure out what you had done that was so wrong to the person you cared for that they had chosen someone else over you.
“Six months.” His answer was short, the words choppy and clipped as they indicated the anger that still rested with the raw wounds left by the split. I can’t say I blamed him, there would always be a certain kind of sting left behind when you watched the person you care for choose someone else over you. Hell, it’d been two years for me and I still struggled with it.
“You wanna talk about it?” Not that I really wanted to hear the details, but hell we didn’t have anything else to do really.
“Not especially.” He mumbled and then moved to lean back against my cheap dining table, looking for all the world like he would break it under his weight. A part of me wanted to go super spazz and wave him away from the cheap piece of furniture before it collapsed. However, another part of me – that secret evil little demon that rested at the back of my mind and thrived on acts of pure wicked amusement - was pretty much cheering for it to break so I could watch the festivities. Truly, I just couldn’t decide which way I wanted things to play out.
While my mind continued to conjure up pictures of each scenario playing itself out, Cal took my silence to mean something else. Suddenly, he was talking again and I found myself having to try and pay attention.
“Guess it gives us something to talk about though.” He began, moving to stand and choosing instead to sink down into one of the chairs settled off to the side. “What do you want to know?”
“I dunno. Let’s start with something simple. What was her name?” Turning off the water, I made my way to the stove, setting the pot on the burner and moving to reach up into the cabinet and grab a few spices.
Let it never be said I skimped on flavor. So many people discount the simplest things to add a bit of kick to their food. Robbie and I had learned long ago that it could be beneficial in so many ways to experiment with all sorts of flavors. Few people realized that something as simple as adding salt and pepper to the water you were about to prepare your food in could help bring out the flavors you wanted.
“Dana. Her name was Dana.” The wistful sound in his voice almost made me want to flinch. Whoever this chick had been, it seemed Cal remained hung up on her.
“Nice name. So what happened with Dana?” I asked. Moving towards the fridge to grab a package of chicken, I turned my back on him to give some semblance of privacy in the way of distraction. Not even sure he noticed, I chose not to give it a second thought.
“I wish I knew. I mean, I thought everything was fine. We’d been living happily together for a while, at least I assumed as much.” His voice faltered, the pause causing me to look up from the two pieces of chicken I had in hand to peer over at him. Surprisingly, I found that he hadn’t deliberately cut off in mid-thought but instead seemed to be more dazed than anything. As if he were watching the events that had taken place through some surreal looking glass.
On one hand, I could more than relate. When Jim’s bomb had exploded in the middle of my life and upended everything, I’d spent weeks in a daze. It’s a hell of a place to be when your whole world seems to turn on its axis and everything you thought you knew to be true, ends up being wrong.
Those of you that have had a bad break up of any type know exactly what it is I am talking about. There is no getting over it, you get through it. When you see someone else experiencing that same pain, you may have a certain amount of sympathy for them but you’re more than aware you can’t help. Instead, you stand there, just like I did…looking like a schmuck and waiting for the person in pain to catch back up to reality.
Unfortunately, I was a little too high strung so I tried to push him along.
“So, I guess everything wasn’t fine?” My question, while I had meant it to be a gentle push, sounded about as crude and grating as a cowboy in a saloon. I flinched a bit at how uncaring the question sounded. One day, I’d need to invest in a verbal filter of some sort.
Despite my rather inept probing to bring Cal back to the land of the living, he gave a soft chortle. Peering over at him and seeing him shake his head, I returned my attention to the arduous task of dropping the two pieces of chicken into the pot of water.
“Nope, everything was not fine. Something I learned when I got home from work one afternoon and found all of my things stacked out in the hallway of our apartment complex.” His words held that slight twist of bitterness. One that said he still tried to piece together just how exactly that particular event had happened.
“Wow, that sucks. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.” On a scale of zero to lame, my reply had to be somewhere in the region of ‘baby lamb with broken legs crawling to get away from a wolf while he continues gnawing at the belly’ lame. I have already admitted to not being the most socially adept person in the world, or the most sympathetic. In a situation like this, that became exceedingly clear.
“Yeah, it does. I’m still not quite sure when everything went wrong. What I do know is that when I knocked on the door of the apartment to try and talk to her, the new ‘boyfriend’ answered the door. Surprising really, since it was my name on the damn lease.” He snorted, and this time he got my full attention.
Forgetting for a moment that I had a task to accomplish so I could make my internet phone call meeting, my hands stilled. The chicken I’d been pulling and trimming fat from now forgotten as I peered at Cal in consternation.
“Are you serious?” Hell, Jim had done a number on me, but damned if he had tried to pull some shit with taking the apartment that had been in my name.
“As a heart attack…er…wait, is it too soon to say shit like that?” he asked.
“I won’t tell if you don’t.” M
y replay was given with a half-assed smirk before I shook my head and started to once again pull at the fatty remains left on the chicken. “So, she kicked you out of your apartment and moved in some new guy. Did you know him? What’d you do?”
“Oh, I knew him alright.” Cal snorted. This time with a healthy amount of disgust, “So do you for that matter.” While I worked, Cal moved to stand, making his way into the kitchen and hovering a couple of feet behind me. Almost immediately I found myself fumbling a little, disconcerted by his presence in the small space.
“Oh yeah? You think you and I have a lot of mutual friends?” I tried to play it off, giving a small forced laugh to try and lighten the mood.
“Not so much mutual friends as mutual work contacts. The guy standing at the apartment door was Micheal McGinley.” His words brought me to a standstill. Son of a bitch. No wonder he hadn’t seemed too bothered by the guy in the lobby getting attacked. Then again, hearing all of this, I couldn’t really blame him.
“Damn, that’s rough. Not only does she give you the boot, she did it over your boss. That’s harsh.” I commented softly, shaking my head a bit. No matter how annoying I may have considered Cal Mitty to be, that kind of cold-hearted betrayal was not something I would have wished on anyone.
“You could definitely say that. Going after him over any of it was not exactly an option considering who he is. So, I had to swallow a lot of my pride and try to take it like a man. I still don’t know what all went wrong with Dana and I, but I did get my licks in.” He gave a dark chuckle and this time, I found myself more than a little intrigued.
“What did you do?” Seeing the almost guilty look of pleasure on his face had me fighting the urge to smile. I recognized the signs of something devious - hell, I’d been guilty of it enough times when Robbie and I had been given half a chance to roam free on our own.
“I went to the building manager and asked to have him remove my name from the apartment lease.” Cal grinned a little.