I Just Feel Pain
Of course he would run into her. It seemed that fate had a habit of screwing him over even when he didn't do anything wrong. He had just been trying to have a drink and forget for a little while when she slid into the seat next to him at the bar. Mike barely cast her a glance before ordering another round.
"Mike. I think you've had enough." Maryse said calmly with something else mixed in. Something he couldn't decipher.
"Enough?" Mike couldn't help but laugh. It would never be enough after what she put him through. "You have some nerve trying to tell me anything." He growled in a biting tone.
"Don't act like this, Mike." Maryse turned to face him fully. "I still want to be there for you as at least a friend."
"Pfft. A friend?" Mike finally turned to face her with fury in his eyes. "Please. We were never friends. We weren't before and we sure as hell aren't now." He stood up as his next round arrived and slammed his money on the table. Mike downed the drinks and stormed out of the bar. It only took him a minute to release that she was following him. "Stop following me, I want nothing to do with you."
Maryse's facade of strength was swept away in a moment at those words. "You can't mean that. Not after all we've been through."
"Really?" Mike asked stopping. "Really?" He turned to face her. "After all we've been through, huh? Maybe you should have thought about all of that before you slept with my best friend! He was my brother!"
"It was a mistake! I was drunk!" Maryse pleaded.
"Oh yeah? You were drunk? So what?" Mike put his arms out. "So what? You know how many times I've gotten drunk and been hit on or flirted with? You know what? I never did." He put his arms down. "Because I never would."
"Oh and you're so perfect right, Mike?" Maryse yelled scornfully. "You may not have cheated on me, but it certainly wasn't easy."
"Easy? Love isn't supposed to be easy! A relationship isn't supposed to be easy!" Mike took a deep breath to calm himself. "Even if it's not easy, you work at it. You don't betray your partner in the way that you did. I mean.. can you imagine it? What it felt like to come home the next day and find my best friend, a man who was like a brother to me all of my life, and you, the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life and marry, in bed together. Do you know how that felt? It was like I was ripped in half. Like my heart had been torn from my chest."
Tears were welled up in Maryse's eyes as she reached out to him. "I know and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, but we can still fix it. I have to believe that we can still fix it. Because, Mike, I feel the exact same way. There is no one else. No other man who can replace you."
Mike felt his heart aching to believe her. To believe in her again. However, he knew all along that he couldn't. Not anymore. "If that was true, you wouldn't have even thought about sleeping with John. You wouldn't have followed through with it, knowing what it would do to us and to me." He turned his back on Maryse once again. "Just leave me alone. We have nothing more to say to each other."
Mike walked a few unsteady steps before her voice called to him again. "At least let me call you a cab."
"It's fine." Mike said continuing to walk. He got a bit furtherer and felt a slim hand wrap around his bicep. Mike moved his arm away swiftly as if he was burned and stared at her with wide eyes. He did his best to ignore the raw pain in her eyes and spoke. "What the hell did I just say? We have nothing left to say. We are done here."
"Please. Just let me call you a cab, so I can know that you're going to get home safe." Maryse pleaded in a voice so close to a beg that Mike relented.
"Alright." He said. His voice the softest it'd been all night.
The process only took a few moments, but for the pair of former lovers it felt like an eternity. It wasn't long before Mike sat in the backseat of his cab and went on his way home. Maryse stood there in the open air of the night and pulled out her phone. She went to her voicemails and opened the only one she had. There was a clicking sound and then Mike's voice rang out.
"Hey Mary! I'm sorry that I couldn't get back home tonight, but I hope you, John, and Coral can do something fun. I haven't said it enough lately, but you are the most beautiful woman in the world and you deserved to be tried like it. How about this? When I get back, we take a cruise. Just the two of us. I know it's expensive and you're going to be apprehensive. Don't worry! I'll be there holding your hand and making sure you're okay. You are worth it and so much more. I'm so glad to have met you, you are the biggest thing in my world. I love you! See you when I get back!"
Tears dripped down Maryse's face as she broke into a fit of broken sobs.
Meanwhile in the cab, Mike had taken out his phone and dialed her number. She hadn't picked up and so he eerily found himself leaving another voicemail. It said:
"Maryse. At one point, I would have done anything for you and I mean anything. Whether that was fight the world off or give my life for yours. That's how much I loved you. And still, despite everything I tried to do to make you happy, you broke me. You broke me in a way I have never been broken. I go to my apartment everyday and can't stand to look at it. Because I still see you everywhere. I can't focus at work because I see you coming to drop off my lunch. I can't even get a cup of coffee because that's how we met so long ago. You were involved in every faucet of my life here and so I know I have to go away. Don't try to convince me not to go, I've made up my mind. I can't stay in this city. It's too hard. As long as I stay, I just feel pain."
Mike ended the voicemail and adamantly avoided the sympathetic looks he received from the driver. It was time he moved on from this place. He need to remind himself that this pain wouldn't last forever and that there was more to the world than just this.