Was It All Worth It?
I wasn't listening the first time he said it, but once he repeated it, and I looked into his eyes, I knew that what he said was true.
"I'm leaving and I don't know if I'm ever coming back," he'd told me.
Now, normally he would just up and leave. That would have been nothing new. And I would never know whether he was coming back or not. But for some strange reason, he always found his way back here. No notice. He'd just disappear without a trace. Then return the same way he left.
This time it was different. He'd stopped me in the middle of typing a very important document by saying, "I'm leaving and I don't know if I'm ever coming back."
I looked up at him and saw that his eyes were glazed with what would soon be tears. I couldn't understand what was going on. Why was he telling me this? What had made him come to this decision?
Ours was a strange relationship really. People usually thought that I would be the emotional one. Apparently those people had no idea who my father was. And they assumed that he would be the tough one. The one with the hardened heart.
Well, it just wasn't like that. Mine had always been the heart of stone. How he was never able to chisel his way through it, I can never remember. But he was there and I was there and we were together...
And now this.
"What is it?" I asked as if he hadn't said a coherent word to me.
He took a deep breath and looked away from me. I watched him fidget as he stood over my desk. "I'm leaving," he repeated.
I smiled to myself. I probably shouldn't have done it so that he could see it. I could tell that seeing my smirk had hurt him. "So, you're leaving? So, go. I can't stop you," I said.
I could see that it broke his heart to hear me say that. The soft-hearted thing that he was.
"I--I...," he stammered.
I folded my arms and simply looked at him.
"I... I don't know if I'll come back," he told me.
I laughed a bit this time. I even removed my reading glasses and rubbed my eyes to show him how tired this interruption made me. "What's this about?"
"Well, I--" he began. "We shouldn't hide what we have together."
"Alright. Now we're getting somewhere," I said frigidly, sardonically.
We'd had the conversation before. At least a million times. And we'd both agreed that it would be best not to share the knowledge of this relationship with anyone. ANYONE. Now this.
"So, now YOU'RE leaving ME because YOU want our families to know what we 'have together'? We talked about this. We BOTH said that we should keep this to ourselves. Am I right?" I asked.
He just looked at me with those big teary eyes.
"Say something!" I demanded. "Because you look like you don't understand what I just said."
"You're right. We--we agreed on it," he responded quickly.
I saw the tears threaten to escape from his eyes, but I went on anyway. "So, now you've changed your mind. Sounds like I should be the one leaving."
"Why are you being so cold?" he asked.
I laughed again. "Why are you being so stupid?"
It was like a dagger to his fragile little heart.
"You know full well why we haven't gone public with this. Not only will the media have a field day, but my dad would kill both of us. Now, you may not have much on the line here, but I do. I'm not risking it all just because you feel the need to do something dumb like sing of our love from the mountain tops. Get a grip on reality, man. We're not even supposed to be together," I told him.
That forced the tears from his eyes. I got no satisfaction from seeing it, mind you. I simply knew that they were coming.
"You know, it's like you're a completely different person now that you're president of Capsule Corp. I don't even want to be with someone who's lost everything he used to be," he said.
It was the last statement I heard from him. That was the day he left for good. From what I've heard, he went crying to my little sister about it. And she'd comforted him. In more ways than one. She'd always had her eyes on him anyway.
They got married not long after that. Even had a little girl together.
Me? I'm still running Capsule Corp. But sometimes I wonder if it was all worth it in the end.
--The End--
--This is just a little something I wrote while...well, I'll just keep what I was going through to myself. No one wants to hear about that. What do you think? I know it's short and I know it seemed to come out of nowhere. And I know that there's not much of a story behind it. Maybe I'll elaborate on it if I get good reviews. If not, then it'll still be there.