After finally leaving bed and heading to the bathroom, I hear a knock at the front door. "Pen!" I yell, knowing that she has probably forgotten that she's not supposed to be here.
"Just a minute, I'm getting the door," she responds. I feel all of the blood drain from my face as I quickly leave the bathroom and pull on a pair of sweatpants before making my way towards the door.
"Pen!" I yell again, but it's too late. She's opened the door already. And wearing a sheet from the bed, leaving opportunities for explanation to a minimum. Maybe it's one of my neighbors. Maybe it's one of my neighbors, I think repeatedly as I move to the door. From this vantage point, I only see Penelope's back, and I know that she's lost the ability to speak.
"Who the hell are you?" I hear from the other side of the door, taking a sharp inhale as I realize who it is. I take the last final steps to the door and pull the floundering Penelope back inside.
"What are you doing here, Haley?" I ask, trying to keep calm, but knowing that this situation could become explosive quickly.
"I just-who is she?" she asks me, refusing to acknowledge Penelope's presence next to me.
"What are you doing here, Haley?" I state again, more slowly and hopefully more insultingly.
"I came to see you. I hadn't seen you in a while and I was worried."
"Where exactly would we have run into each other?"
"I don't know, Aaron! I just thought that we would see each other at some point in our lives. We do live in the same town after all."
"It's a big town."
"Bigger when you're avoiding me."
"I'm not avoiding you, Haley. I have no reason and no desire to see you."
"Aaron, don't be like that."
"Haley, I want you to leave. Please."
"Not until you introduce me to your girlfriend."
"Haley, leave. Now."
"What, are you ashamed of her?"
"Leave now before I call the police and have you removed."
"Fine, but know that you can't throw me out of your life this easily, Aaron."
"Goodbye, Haley," I respond, slamming the door shut in her face before I lean against it, taking in gasping breaths, trying to regain some semblance of control.
A noise behind me breaks me out of my stupor and I turn around to see that Penelope has fled back to the bedroom. Oh shit, I think as I enter the room and see Penelope dressing in a frenzy.
"Pen, what are you doing?" I ask quietly, trying to not upset her further. She continues moving frantically and seems to have not heard my question. I move over to her and wrap my arms around her, trying to still her movements. As soon as my arms are around her, she leaps away from me, but she does turn around to face me, looking ashen.
"Who was she?" she asks, her question barely audible.
"Pen, sit down," I say gently, grabbing her hand and pulling her down to the bed with me. I wrap my arms around her and after a few seconds, she begins to relax and soften into the embrace. "I'm really sorry about that. I'm sorry that any of that happened. I've been trying to work up the courage to tell you about Haley, but I only didn't because I didn't want to talk about her. Everything that happened between the two of us makes me miserable and for the first time since that, I'm not miserable. I'm happier than I ever remember being, so I'm trying to live in the moment and not dwell on the past."
"So, she's an ex?"
"Yes. She was my first girlfriend. Are you sure you want to hear about this?"
"Yes, but only if you want to tell me. I don't want to upset you."
"And I love you for that. But it's time I tell you." I take a deep breath before beginning my story. "I met Haley when we were in high school. I was captain of the soccer team and she was a theatre kid, so our paths never really crossed. It wasn't until senior year that I met her for the first time. I accidentally wandered into musical auditions and when I saw her perform, I was entranced. I even auditioned for the musical so that I would have the opportunity to be near her. We started dating soon after that and fell in love quickly. But falling in love with her ended up being one of the worst things that happened to me."
"We ended up going to the same college, which was completely unintentional. Or so I thought. By the time we started going out, we had already applied to colleges, and I had been recruited to play soccer at several schools. I made my decision on my own and told Haley once I decided. She was thrilled and told me that she had been accepted at the same school and was waiting to tell me that she was planning on going there."
"So we spent the next four years in complete bliss. She was studying to become a nurse and I was studying English, so we didn't see each other often, but we made a point of spending time together. The day after graduation, I proposed. And she accepted. We started planning our life together. We set a date for the wedding and decided that we were both going to move here. Her work is flexible enough that she can live anywhere, and I wanted to come here for my doctorate. We bought a house and moved and started to get settled."
"Because of our horrible schedules, though, we saw less and less of each other. We pretty quickly started to resent each other, but at the end of the day, I was sure that we were still in love. That is, until I came home from studying one night and found her having sex with some random guy. I left that night. Packed up enough of my things to get by and stayed at a motel until I could find an apartment. When I went back to the house to get the rest of my things, she tried to talk to me, tried to talk sense into me, as she called it. She told me that she had sacrificed everything for me from the beginning of our relationship. She told me that she only went to college where she did because I was going there and she wanted to be with me. She acted like this was expected of her and that I was the monster in this situation because I didn't acknowledge the sacrifices she's made for me. She accused me of being neglectful, saying that my absence was the reason that she had to find someone else to meet her needs. She had been seeing that guy for all but a month of the time we had spent here. That would mean she was with him for nine months. And she had the right to accuse me of being the reason the relationship ended."
"After she had said all she needed to, I packed my things and told her that I never wanted to see her again. And we were doing well until she decided to show up on my doorstep and accost me and the woman I love. The first woman who has brought me true happiness in my life." I put my hand on Penelope's face and bring her gaze up to meet mine so that she can see the sincerity in my eyes and understand how deeply I love her. She gasps and she looks at me and kisses me lightly, trying to keep it from going farther.
"I'm so sorry that she did that to you, Aaron. But it made you the man that you are now. The man that I love, so I have to in some way be thankful for her and her idiocy. If she hadn't done that to you, we wouldn't be where we are now. I love you so much and I need you to know that I would never do something like that to you. I don't want to ever see you hurt."
"I love you, Pen," I respond, kissing her lightly again. "I should warn you, though, that that's probably not the last we'll hear from Haley."