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Dee
Thiswasn’tme.Iwasn’t a depressed, stay-in-bed-all-day, weeping woman. I was a fighter. I faced the toughest things head on. I didn’t hide in my room because my life had fallen apart. Yet for weeks, that’s all I’d done. I laid in bed, mostly sleeping or staring at the wall, wallowing in misery while my sister Runa and my best friend Casey did their best to take care of me since I refused to.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken a shower. I had no idea how I smelled. Or when I’d last gotten out of bed to pee. Hell, I was pretty sure my job was toast since I hadn’t bothered to call in. All I could focus on was that my heart had been ripped out of my chest. Dennis, my now-former boyfriend, blindsided me by confessing he’d fallen in love with his co-worker, Diane, and he and his boys, ones I loved like my own, were moving to Vancouver to be with her.
The asshole.
At first, I couldn’t believe it. I thought he was joking, but one look into those fawn-brown eyes, I knew he was serious.
“How could you do this to me?” I’d cried as a sudden onslaught of tears blurred my vision. “How could you take them away from me?”I wasn’t someone who ever let others see me get emotional, but I’d had no problem doing it around Dennis. I trusted him after all, and I loved him. I thought he loved me too, but apparently, he didn’t.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Dennis had said sincerely. “It just did. And I love her, Dee. I love her more than I’ve loved anything, except my kids. I know this hurts you, and I’m sorry this happened, but I’m not sorry about her. I just regret that I had to hurt you.”
“You’re sorry? You are SORRY?”I stared at him incredulously.
“Yes, I’m sorry, Dee. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but—”
“Fuck you, Dennis! Fuck you and fuck her!Just . . . FUCK OFF!” I shouted, cutting him off before he could utter another word. Frustrated, devastated, and beyond humiliated, I buried my face with my hands and broke down.
Dennis rose from his seat without another word spoken. He kept his eyes forward, avoiding mine as he left me sitting all alone in our favorite coffee shop, The Brass Bean, sobbing uncontrollably while the people sitting around us stared, unknowing witnesses to the whole ugly scene.
I felt like I’d gone insane. Well, maybe I had. And who could blame me? I’d just gotten my ass publicly dumped by the man who I thought was ‘The One’. A man who apparently was “The One” for someone else. Tears flowed harder as I tried to calm down, but I couldn’t. The tears just wouldn’t stop. One woman took pity on me when she came over and hugged me, whispering that whoever that asshole was, he didn’t deserve me. How right she was. That motherfucking asshole didn’t deserve me, but his boys did and that’s what hurt the most. Dennis had taken them away and I would never see them again. Unable to face the public any longer, I left with my tail tucked between my legs.
Somehow, I managed to get myself home. I went straight upstairs and sat on the bottom of the shower and cried my eyes out. For weeks, I lived like a zombie, going through the motions, pretending everything was okay, acting like I hadn’t had my heart ripped out, but not really living. Just existing from one day to the next. I was so mad and frustrated, but I’d held it in until I found the strength to finally confess everything to my best friend.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have kept it from Casey as long as I did, but I’d been in a kind of denial. Part of me thought Dennis would wise up, realize he’d made a mistake, and that we’d all go back to being a happy family. He didn’t and I reached a point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t keep up the facade. Hence why I’ve been lying in my bed for however long it’s been, not caring about anything and doing the absolutely wrong thing by focusing on my pain and how the happy life I’d once had faded like a puff of smoke.
What hurt the most wasn’t that I couldn’t blame Dennis for how he felt. I could understand falling in love with someone else. It happened to millions of people every day. Yes, it sucked that he’d tried to let me down easily. That he’d believed he was doing his best to be honest with me because that’s what he felt I deserved. However, I didn’t deserve to be publicly humiliated. Ideservedhis fidelity. Ideservedthe happiness I thought we’d shared, but it had all been stripped away. All because of the bitch he'd left me for.
Was I being harsh on the woman who’d captured his heart? Was it unfair to hate her when it was Dennis who’d done me wrong. Abso-fucking-lutely not.
It would have been different if his new girlfriend was anyone else except for this bitch named Diane. I loathed everything about Diane. You see, Diane was a master manipulator. Your typical trash bag, and gold-digger of the highest level. With men, she was flirty, vivacious, exciting, and would doanythingfor attention. And I meananything. With women, it was a completely different story. Diane was cruel, jealous, and vindictive. She was cunning and ruthless. A true viper who went after Dennis because she probably found out about his father’s millions and figured she’d hit paydirt. Well, the joke was on her because all that was wrapped up in trust for his sons and Dennis had absolutely no access to it.
Diane was your quintessential boyfriend-slash-husband thief. If she set her sights on your man, nothing would stop her until she either had him or the dude in question slapped a restraining order against her. There was one time the secretary at the architecture firm where she and Dennis worked told me how Diane had the hots for one of the partners, but said partner was interested in one of the executive assistants. Of course, Diane claimed the guy as hers and threw herself at him. The partner rebuffed her, telling her in no uncertain terms that he didn't want her and accused her of liking him for his money. He’d then gone and made it worse by announcing his heart belonged to his newly-minted fiancée.
Diane’s hatred for her ‘rival’ had tongues wagging. Even I felt sorry for the poor woman who’d unfortunately gotten caught in her crosshairs. For months, Diane continued to throw herself at the partner to no avail. It almost came at the cost of her job. When he finally threatened her with legal action, she was so pissed that she slipped laxatives into the poor fiancée's coffee, sending her to the emergency room. Unfortunately, there was no way to prove Diane was behind it because the bitch had been smart and did it on the day the cameras just happened to be ‘malfunctioning’. Dennis, meanwhile, didn’t believe any of it. He’d immediately jumped to her defense and remained adamant that everyone got it wrong. In his words, “Diane could never do something so despicable.” That should have been my first warning, but I stupidly ignored it. But enough about her.
Just as I decided to roll over onto my other side to change views, my phone rang. My first inclination was to ignore it, but I didn’t. Instead, I leaned over, grabbed my phone, and immediately checked to see who was calling. “Mr. Harrison?” I said, surprised to see Casey’s father's contact lighting up my screen.
“Dee?”
“Hey, Russ. What’s going on?” I tried to be upbeat, but failed.
“I was calling to see how you were doing, sweetheart?” The man, who at times felt like he was a second father, asked sweetly. It meant a lot that he gave a crap, especially since the sperm donor who sired me, my sister, and our brother Anthony, split minutes after Anthony was conceived. At least the three of us struck gold with a great adopted dad. Thomas had stepped up when a lesser man couldn’t even handle the ball.
“I’m hanging in there. Taking it one day at a time.” That part was the truth. Taking my own advice via Casey, I did whatever I could to make it through the day without falling apart. Sometimes I failed, sometimes I succeeded. Either way, each morning when I woke up, I tried.
“I’m glad to hear it. You deserve to be happy.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“Listen, there’s another reason for my call.”
“Oh?”
“It’s no secret that you’re in need of another job.”
