Chapter 23
“I’m a lesbian!” were the first words Eve heard when she picked up her phone.
She giggled slightly. “What happened now, Jody?”
Until this point, Jody had held herself together with the glue of anger. But now, in her apartment with Eve on the other end of the phone, Jody started to lose it. Her breaths were short and shaky and she could feel the tears waiting to spill over.
Eve waited patiently on her end of the phone as she heard Jody’s facade collapse.
“Oh Jode...”
“He’s cheating on me,” Jody stated. Her chin was the last quivering piece of the wall she had put up. It shattered.
“He’s what?”
“He’s cheating,” Jody sobbed, “on me,” she continued through shaky breaths, “with Natalie,” one more breath got in the way, “his,” Jody paused and cried even harder, “wife.”
“Jode...” Eve said soothingly. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I loved him so much,” Jody cried. “I trusted that bastard with everything, Eve. Everything. And he cheats on me.” Eve’s heart broke as she listened to her friend weep. “I don’t know what went wrong or why he’s doing it or anything.”
“Shh,” Eve cooed. “Maybe he really is sick.”
“No,” Jody spat.
“How do you know?”
Jody sniffled and reached across to retrieve a box of tissues. “Because,” she started, “his neck was covered in hickeys.” Jody fell apart again. Her entire body shook and bent with the sobs. Her heart was in a million different pieces all at once. She was rapidly running out of energy from all her tears, but kept on crying.
“Oh sweetheart...”
“I hate men.”
“I know you do,” Eve said with a slight smile. This was Jody’s usual routine after a breakup.
“I should be a lesbian.”
Eve rolled her eyes. “Jode, you say that every time.”
“I know,” Jody sobbed, “but I’m gonna mean it one time.”
There was a silence as Jody attempted to collect herself and Eve contemplated what to say.
“Maybe you should talk to him,” Eve suggested.
“I can’t,” Jody whimpered.
“Why not?”
“Because,” Jody said as she collapsed into tears again, “he’s too busy sleeping with Natalie to even care that I exist.”
“You don’t know that it’s Natalie.”
“You’re right. It’s probably another girl just like me who fell into his trap.”
Eve rubbed her neck and tried to contemplate a way to make Jody feel better.
A distinct beeping was heard in Jody’s ear. She pulled the phone away from her ear and slammed her hand into the Ignore button upon recognizing the name on the caller ID.
“What the hell is this?” Jody cried bitterly. “Now he calls!”
“Well go pick up!” Eve urged. “Call me later.”
“No way,” Jody said nearly evenly as she started to regain some composure. She then sounded defeated.”I already ignored the call.”
“Jody, Jody, Jody... What am I going to do with you?”
“I just don’t understand,” Jody wept. “What have I done to deserve this?”
“You haven’t done anything wrong,” Eve soothed.
“I had to have done something horrible because I’m constantly being punished.”
“That’s not true,” Eve tried again. “What about Alex?”
Jody sobbed again. “I miss him too.”
“Why don’t you go wash your face, change into sweatpants, and call Taylor back? You might feel a little better afterwards.”
Another beep was heard.
“Shit.”
“What?”
“He left me a voicemail.”
“So go listen to it.”
Jody pouted and clutched her pillow. “I don’t wanna.”
“Jode, stop acting like you’re 5 and listen to your voicemail. You can call me back and bitch about him after, OK?”
“OK,” she moped.
“So I’ll talk to you later?”
“OK,” she moped again.
“Hang in there, Jode, and call me back, OK?”
“Fine.”
Shortly after, both parties hung up their phones.
Jody remained frozen to her seat on her bed, blankly staring at the phone and almost willing it to turn into Taylor. Somehow she had wanted to believe so badly that Eve was wrong about Natalie being back in the picture that she had brainwashed herself into honestly thinking that Taylor was hers and hers alone.
Still shaking, she dialed into her voicemail and awaited the message.
“You have 1 new message,” the automated voice reported. “You have 5 saved voice messages. First message...”
Jody took a deep breath and bit her lip.
“Hey Jode,” Taylor started seriously and cleared his throat. “It’s me, uh, Taylor. I just wanted to make sure you, uh, were OK and, uh...” Jody could see his face as his voice rang in her ear. “Listen, things are really fucked up right now and I don’t blame you for being angry. I’ve been acting weird towards you and I was hoping, well, I am hoping, that you’ll call me back so we can talk about it.” He paused again. “I guess that’s it.” She heard him breathing into the phone. “I, um, I love you Jode. Bye.”
“End of message. To erase this message, press 7, to save it press 9.”
Jody absently pressed 9 and hung up.
If he still loved her, then why was he sleeping with someone else and casting off all the affection she tried to show him? Jody’s heart twitched before it broke apart.
She knew that calling him right now was not a good idea- he could easily manipulate her emotions in her current state and that would be counter-productive. Calling now would make her seem too eager to forgive him. She needed time to sort out her feelings and figure out where she stood, time to start to heal and to let Taylor worry for a change.
But one thing continued to irk her to no avail- Taylor never said he was sorry for what he did. Never. Not once did he offer an apology. He merely wanted to talk.
Jody’s heartbreak started boiling into anger.
The next day at work was interesting to say the least. Jody tried to put on a brave facade, but it was cracked and some of her pain shone through. One time, Jody had to excuse herself to collect herself in the back room because a couple had walked into the store and the man had ordered a raspberry chi.
Dana immediately knew that something had happened with Taylor. She kept a protective eye out for her co-worker and an extra close eye on the door. If Taylor so much as looked in the store, Dana was ready to kill him.
Chapter 24
Index
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