"Fine."
She heard the sound of a click in her ear and was stunned. Harry had hung up on her. Here she was - miserable, in bed, obviously there was something very wrong with her, and he'd hung up on her. Sure she'd gotten snippy with him, but he was supposed to be the better person.
Angry now, as well as miserable, she punched out a familiar phone number.
"Hello?"
"I can't believe you hung up on me! And with me as sick as I am."
"You're not sick. You practically admitted it."
"I'm sick in the heart," Sally wailed.
She felt the tears – tears that she had been sure she had cried out last night - well back up in her eyes. With her free hand she reached for the tissue box on the floor only to find it empty. Taking the cordless with her, she trucked to the bathroom to find some toilet paper.
"What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she sniffed into the Charmin.
"Then why did you call me back?"
"To tell you that you are a horrible person for hanging up on me."
She heard him sigh deeply into the phone.
"This is about that guy, isn't it?"
Sally sniffed again then blew her nose. Probably not the most pleasant sound a person wanted echoed in his ear, but since he was being mean to her she didn't care so much. "I really don't want to talk about it."
"Fine. Then I'll let you go."
"Just like that?" she asked, reluctant to be alone once more with only her cats and her misery for company.
Not to mention that currently the cats were avoiding her, as they were both suffering from a case of affection overload. A result of an extreme amount of hugging and squeezing last night.
"I have to work."
She knew he did. She also knew she was being completely unreasonable, which shouldn't come as the biggest shock in the world to him. But she had enough remaining sense to know that she should hang up and let him get back to his job.
"Don't forget your conference call with Henderson at 2:00," she reminded him.
"I won't."
"And don't forget to send out that proposal to Warner."
"I won't."
"And the man is coming to look at the copier machine today. Don't let him tell you it's just a problem with the toner cartridge. We've been down that road before and it still ends up jamming…"
"I won't."
This time it was Sally's turn to sigh. "I guess that's everything."
"I guess."
"I'll be back tomorrow."
"Okay. But if you're still… you know… sick in the heart… or whatever… you can take another day."
Unfortunately even though she knew he was trying to be nice in his own warped way, all she could hear was the fact that he didn't need her to come in tomorrow. He didn't need her. Her heart began to beat nervously in her chest and her stomach filled with dread.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean I can take another day?" she questioned him, her tone slightly to the right of panic.
"Just that… if you still felt bad…"
"Are you saying I'm not needed around the office?"
"No."
"Are you saying you can handle that place without me there? Because let me tell you Harry, I know you, you would have let that copier man get away with a cleaning and a new toner cartridge."
"You're right."
"So you're saying you do need me around the office." It was so important right now that somebody need her.
"I need you. I need you."
She smiled with relief but then quickly frowned when her mind leapt to the next conclusion. "Then what you were really trying to say is that you don't think I can overcome yet another broken heart."
"Oh my God."
"Because I can, you know." She sniffled and wiped away a fresh batch of tears. "I'm very resilient," she cried.
"Please don't cry," he begged. "You know you always creep me out when you cry."
"That's because you are uncomfortable with deep emotions," she told him. "You really need to work on that Harry or you are never going to open yourself up to the possibility of a real relationship."
"You mean so I can be happy like you."
Sally scowled into the phone. "You're being sarcastic with me at a time like this?"
"You can take it. You're resilient. Remember?"
"That's true."
"So what happened?" he asked again.
Since she'd sort of let it slip that things hadn't gone well she figured there was no point in not telling him.
"He called me last night."
"That's a good thing."
"To tell me he wasn't interested in seeing me again."
"Oh."
Yeah. Oh. That's just what Sally had thought. One minute high as a kite because he called, even though he was slightly outside of the allotted time frame range for an appropriate call back, the next minute thrown into the depths of despair.
"He said he didn't want to be one of those guys who just didn't call," she explained. "But he clearly doesn't understand the rules! If he doesn't call then I can make up anywhere between one and a thousand excuses as to why. One: getting back together with his ex-wife and one thousand: being killed tragically in a parachuting accident."
"He parachuted? Out of planes?"
Sally rolled her eyes even though Harry couldn't see her through the phone. "I have no idea if he parachuted or not. The point is if he doesn't call, then I never know the truth and I can create whatever story I want. Instead, he has to be noble and call just to tell me outright that he doesn't want to see me. The bastard!"
"I'm sorry." The sincerity in his voice was clear even through the static of the cordless phone.
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"It's okay. I'm okay." Or at least she would be.
"He's a jerk."
"He said I was a little too much for him. What did he mean by that?" She waited. But when there was no response forthcoming, she relented. "Okay, don't answer that."
"I have to go. Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
"Aren't I always?" she asked somewhat fatalistically.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye."
This time she hung up then sank back into her bed. Both cats, obviously having forgiven her for last nights digressions into super lovey-dovey mode, hopped up on the bed to join her, one content to sit near her head and the other at her feet.
She tried not to feel lonely. She tried not to feel sorry for herself because she was still single. She tried to convince herself that she would rather be too much than too little.
When that didn't work, she went in search of the ice cream.
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My March Release, Calculated Risk!
Calculated Risk
March 2005
Silhouette Bombshell™
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