Chapter 9 : Holding On


Mark slammed the door shut and stalked straight to his bedroom, letting himself flop face-first into the bed. Why did he always have to pick girls who weren't available? Did he do something horrible in his past life? Maybe it was his destiny to be a Lonely Loser for the rest of his life. The biggest fool to ever walk the face of the earth.

It would be an understatement to say that he was in a bad mood.

He groaned. He was going to need to find some release. Stomping over to the telephone, he dialled Peter and Juliet's number.

Juliet answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Juliet, it's Mark."

"Oh hi, Mark! What can I do for you?"

"Let's elope and move to the Maldives."

"Ah. What happened to you, Mark?"

"Could I pop over? I'm in need of a rather large venting session."

Juliet's voice took on a really apologetic tone. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mark, I would love for you to come over, but Peter's meeting me for a movie after work. I was just about to step out. If you want I could call him and ask him to get an extra ticket for you, though."

Ah… sweet romance. "No, that's fine. Thanks anyway, Juliet. You go along and have fun with Peter. You should. Tell him that he works too hard sometimes."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be fine. I was just being a little childish and whiny. You run along and have a good time."

"All right then, Mark. I'll call you later."

"That'd be nice. Talk to you later then."

He hung up the phone feeling not much better. In fact, he felt even more a Lonely Loser. This was definitely not turning out well. Who else could he call? There was Mia, but he wasn't about to go and call her. She'd come up with ways for him to steal Dani from her boyfriend, and knowing her, she would come up with rather extreme ideas, just short of killing the guy. So who else could he call? He picked up his phone and walked over to his address book. It wasn't very full. Opening it randomly, he let his eyes fall on the first name.

Karl.

All right, then.

"Hello?"

"Hey Karl. Mark here. Erm… are you busy?"

"Nope, I'm free. So, what's up?"

"Nothing much, actually. Just felt like I needed a rant."

"Ah, I understand. Would you like go for a drink or something? I could meet you there."

Mark smiled. Finally. "Oh that would be just great. Just the thing I need. Where would you like to meet?"


Karl sat at the bar, waiting for Mark to turn up. He was glad that Mark had called. He had needed an excuse to get out of the house too, and had just been trying to find one when the phone rang.

Things with Sarah were going pretty well, but her brother was still constantly calling up. He knew that he shouldn't be mean and grudge Michael the attention that he needed from his sister, but even a saint would have to admit that it was rather irritating if the phone was ringing every five to ten minutes. He didn't want to ask Sarah to switch her phone off because that had been the cause of the initial problem. And he understood that he couldn't just demand that she neglect her brother for him. At the end of the day, he was just a boyfriend, but Michael was her family. Her only family.

But still, it was hard.

He waved as Mark entered the pub. A look of relief broke over Mark's face as he came towards Karl. Karl smiled and took a drink. Right. I won't burden Mark with my problems just yet. He was the one who needed the vent, not me. So we'll have to listen to Mark first.

"Gosh, you can't possibly imagine how glad I am that you're free," Mark said, sitting down next to him. "I was going crazy at home."

"So was I," Karl replied. "So, what do you need to vent about?"

Mark cleared his throat, feeling a little uncomfortable now he finally had a chance to talk about it. "Do you remember the singer at the hotel we celebrated Juliet's birthday at?"

"Yes, of course I do. She was great." Karl wondered why Mark was suddenly talking about her. Could there be something going on?

"Well, after the meal, I was out walking alone when I banged into her. We introduced ourselves and ended up having a drink. She's a really nice girl, fun and everything."

"Wow, that's great for you, Mark. You should go for her!"

"That's what I thought. She came by the gallery today and we had a meal and everything, plenty of fun, and then she told me that she already has a boyfriend."

"Wait… she told you that she has a boyfriend after your first date?"

Mark shook his head defensively. "No, it was nothing like that. First of all, it wasn't a date. I just asked her to come by, and she did and so we decided to go have a bite to eat. That was it. It wasn't really a date. And she didn't tell me that she had a boyfriend to prevent me from trying anything. We were just talking about happy couples when she mentioned her boyfriend." He sighed. "I don't even think she realised that I'm interested in her."

"Oh." Karl winced. "Man, that really does stink. Poor you!"

"I know. It's just as if I'm not fated to meet anyone good for me. Every time there's just got to be a catch. I mean, the first time it was Juliet and now Dani…" Mark broke off. "Oops, shouldn't have told you that."

Karl's eyes widened. "You were in love with Juliet? When was that?"

Mark sighed. "I'm not even sure if I'm over her yet. I've liked her for a really long time. But she's in love with Peter, so I didn't want to do anything about it. He's my best friend. I couldn't so something like that him. Anyway, I wouldn't have succeeded in getting the girl; Peter's so much better in every way. I would just have wrecked everything."

Karl was surprised, shocked even. It must have been so difficult for Mark, being in love with his best friend's girlfriend, now wife. He didn't know how he would have managed if he had been in Mark's shoes. "You know, Mark, I think your problem is that you lack self-confidence. You don't believe that you can get the girl you want if you try. I'm not saying that you should have gone after Juliet despite Peter being your best friend, but maybe this time you shouldn't just give up and withdraw into yourself. Maybe you could just hold on. Things might be different this time. You don't have to do anything to specially try to steal her from her boyfriend, but maybe if you just hang around and don't disappear, a chance might come up for you. Come on, I'm sure you can do it."

"I hope so," Mark said doubtfully. "She's a really lovely girl."