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She froze as soon as she saw his face. Warped by the fishhole lens, but it was definitely Richard. She looked away from the peephole, pressing herself against the door in an effort not to make any more noise. The floor tended to creak a little in places and would be a dead giveaway if she moved away from the door. She stood there, doing her best to be quiet. She thought to herself that maybe if she stood real still, then he would eventually think she wasn’t home, and he’d go away.
After a few minutes, she heard him say, “I know you’re in there, Stella. I can hear the television.”
Stella glanced back at the television that she forgot to turn off, swearing to herself. She took a deep breath and answered him. “Go away, Richard. I don’t want to talk to you.”
There was a pause, then, “No. Not before I say what I have to say. And if you won’t open the door, then, I guess I’ll just have to say what I have to say in the hall.”
She waited, listening with her back against the door. He didn’t speak again for a long few seconds, then finally, he said,“I didn’t plan for you.” He paused, his voice sounding mournful and thick. “That’s unusual because I plan for everything. I’m not the type of man who just trips and falls into situations the way that everyone else does. I never planned to sleep with you, Stella. I don’t know if that was a mistake or not, but what I do know is that what happened between us was completely unexpected…and wonderful.”
He’d almost whispered the word, his voice was full of wonder. It made her smile a little.
“I love the way you see the world. How everything is just so easy for you and with you. I went into this thinking that I was going to be the one to teach you how the world turns and as it turns out, the reverse happened. You taught me more than I could have ever expected to learn.”
Another pause. She leaned her head back against the door, listening to his voice. “And now, everything is different,” he said. “Now, I think about you all the time. During the day at work, I wonder where you are and what you’re doing. I want to call and talk to you in the middle of the night, just to get your opinion about something random that just happened to be on my mind. You’ve become this bit of unscheduled programming in my head and…I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying the show.”
She heard him take a deep breath and she imagined him leaning against the door just as she was doing right then.
“I’ve been alone for so long,” he went on, “I thought I was used to it. It’s like I’ve been walking around my heart and there’s all these big empty rooms where my love used to be. And I was used to that. It was fine and it was comfortable. I was beginning to think that I didn’t need anything else in my heart at all. Then one day, I looked up and there you were. Standing there waiting for me to love you.”
He stopped there and Stella felt the familiar pain in her heart again. Her eyes started to burn with tears.Why did he have to come here? Why is he saying these things?
“I haven’t been back to work in three days,” he said. “I haven’t really left my house in three days. The motivation to be out in the world has just, left me. It’s like when I told you to leave, you took with you all these things that I’d grown to love.”
“Richard,” she said, “Stop. Okay? Just…you don’t want to be with me. You made that pretty clear. I don’t understand why you’re here.”
“I wanted to let you know that I’m going back to work tomorrow,” he said. “And I’m going to start the wheels going to step down as CEO.”
She frowned, thinking that she heard him wrong. “What?”
“I’m going to give it all up. The company. My dad’s money. All of it. I’m walking away from everything tomorrow.”
She laughed bitterly. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Don’t do that,” she said, “not for me. Not for someone you don’t even love. You said it yourself. You worked too hard to just give up on that money. Why would you do that?”
“Stella--”
“You don’t even love me. You don’t want to be with me and you don’t love me and now you think that you can do something like this and I’ll come back to you. That’s not how this works.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time. Stella started to think that she chased him away. Finally, he said, “That’s the thing. I do love you, Stella. Very much.”
Stella stopped breathing. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He took a beat, then went on, “And whether we’re together or not, that’s not going to change what I need to do. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all this, it’s that money is everything in my life…and that needs to change. See, I didn’t come here to win you back. I came here to thank you. You opened my eyes to a bigger world, Stella. And for that, I’ll be forever grateful.”
She felt something roll by her foot. She looked down to see a green and blue marble with a swirling stripe down the center. She knelt down to pick it up, blinking in disbelief. It looked almost exactly like her favorite marble that she had when she was a child. A Cat’s Eye marble, shiny and two-toned in its beauty.
“I remember you said that one was your favorite,” she heard him say. “Consider it my gift to you for reminding me what was important in this life.”
Her knees buckled and she fell to her bottom on the floor. Tears rolled down her face as she clasped the marble in her hands. “Richard,” she whispered.
“Take care of yourself,” he said, finally. Stella looked up at the door, expecting to hear more from him. Expecting him to knock again. But the knock never came and after a few seconds, Stella found herself getting to her feet and opening the door.
He was gone. Richard said what he had to say and he left. Stella felt the sobs coming and she closed the door before the entire building could hear her crying. With the door closed, she leaned her forehead against it and wept, holding the marble against her chest.
Richard
“Thisisajoke…right?”Rebecca was standing in Richard’s office, her arms crossed and her blazing red eyebrows turned down into a skeptical frown. “You’re not quitting,” she went on. “You’re just pulling my leg.”
“Check with HR,” said Richard. “I put in my resignation this morning. You’re the first person I’ve told.”
Her frown changed, turning upwards as her eyes widened joyfully. She put her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream as she started jumping up and down merrily. “Oh, this is the best news! Well, not so much for you, but, it’s still pretty wonderful.” As she looked at him, her eyes analyzing, she added, “What’s the catch?’
