relationship, possibly a
lifetime. To say this would be an easy fix could not be further from the truth.
A few hours later, Chella returned to
Mitch’s place to pick up her things. The penthouse was quiet when she entered.
He wasn’t home. She was grateful for that; she wasn’t ready to face him.
She quickly packed her bag,
freshened up, and called a taxi to pick her up. She was writing Mitch a short
thank you note when she heard the door to the foyer open. He stopped abruptly,
staring at her. His athletic clothes and hair were soaked from a workout.
She couldn’t handle being around
him and found it hard to hold herself together. She looked in his direction,
but not directly at him.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hey, I was just leaving you a
note to say thanks. I forgot to ask you how much I owed you for my medication.”
“Don’t worry about it. It was
nothing. Chella, I’m so sorry.”
“Mitch, I can’t have this
conversation now. Thank you for letting me stay here the last few days.”
“If you give me a few minutes to
shower, I can give you a ride.”
“I called a cab. It’ll be here
any second now.”
“Chella, I know I fucked up, and
I’m sorry, but please call me if you need anything. I’m here for you.”
She looked at him but said
nothing. Her phone rang.
“I have to go. My cab’s here.”
“Chella—”
“Mitch, I can’t. I have to go. I
left your key on the island.”
Chella tore her gaze from his and
left, eager for the privacy of the elevator so he couldn’t see her tears fall.
Chella sat on her patio at the hotel taking in
the views while savoring some coffee. Mitch called her numerous times that
evening, but she would not answer. He left her voicemail messages apologizing
and trying to explain himself.
Am I being unreasonable? Why keep
it a secret? Why wouldn’t he just tell me?
Then again, I’ve been on the
ropes about whether I want him in my life or not and this bit of information
would surely complicate things. Still, how do you keep this sort of information
to yourself? God, why does this have to be so complicated?
Besides, Mitch was only human and
entitled to make mistakes.
Late Sunday night, at about the
time she would usually call him, she heard the familiar sound of a text
message.
She picked up her phone and
looked at the screen.
Mitch
Mariani
Sunday February
27, 2011
11:17PM
There are
no excuses. I should have told you. I’m so sorry.
I know
better.
Yes you do. So why didn’t you
just tell me from the start?
Truthfully, the divorce part
didn’t bother her, but the type of relationship he had with his child’s mother
concerned her. Would she have to deal with bitchy ex-wife issues? Why did they
get divorced? Did he still have feelings for her? Did she have feelings for
him? These were questions that only he could answer. At the end of the day,
Chella would have to be the one to decide whether she wanted to deal with the
issues in this type of relationship.
That being said, she missed him
terribly. She had gotten used to being around him all the time, especially over
the last few days. Since making her exit yesterday afternoon, she hadn’t been
able to get him out of her mind, no matter how upset she was with him. She
could not stop thinking about how he’d made love to her and how incredibly sexy
she felt when she was with him. She needed to sleep on it one more night. Maybe
the next day she would wake up with a much clearer head.
Mitch had been honest about his reasons for not
telling her the truth sooner. She had a right to be upset with him, he knew.
Even he was upset with himself for lying to her initially. He had countless
opportunities to tell her the truth, and he had not.
When he received her message
saying not to pick her up the next morning, he couldn’t help but think the
worst. Their relationship would be over before it started. Lying to her was bad
enough, but he felt awful for hurting her, especially after knowing
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