Facing the music

As I left work, I had one thought: I am very, very tired. I had been shot yesterday, so I guess it was to be expected. However, my plans were **** to change; I got a text from Cait.

When I saw the notification that made my phone buzz, my heart stopped. I hadn’t spoken to Cait since The Fuck… or ‘the fuck’… shit. I’m a bad boyfriend.

I didn’t even want to look. What if she was breaking up with me? Her issues with her sister would be more than enough of a reason. What if she figured out that I slept with Hana? That’s another great reason to dump me. I’m sure there’s more valid reasons, but they weren’t coming to mind.

I don’t know how long I stood there, but it was a while. Just taking deep, nervous breaths as I prepared myself for the worst.

Cait: hey, can we talk?

Fuck. That’s the classic ‘bad’ text, right?

I texted back a hesitant “of course” and awaited a response.

Cait: meet me here?

She sent an address. Putting it into VocxMapx pulled up some nerd store. Weird place to meet, but, since it was in public, it probably meant she had no intention of murdering me.

I drove to the store. It was called Nerd Out!, and it was as tacky as you’d imagine; cardboard cutouts of various pop-culture figures, posters for sci-fi flicks, and about a dozen greasy, overweight men. I went inside and was able to find Cait by seeing what every mouth-breather in the store was staring at. I actually heard one geek gasp at the sight of a woman being in proximity to him.

I made my way up to Cait. Before I could get her attention, a voice yelled out.

“Hey! Leave her alone!”

A wet hand grabbed my shoulder. I’m not sure if it was wet from sweat, grease, or something worse.

“M’lady, is this jerk bothering you?” He asked Cait.

Cait looked up and stifled a laugh. “Oh, no, that’s my boyfriend actually. Thank you for watching out, though!”

I smiled at the ‘boyfriend’ part. I wasn’t dumped yet!

The white knight sighed. “Of course… 4chan warned me of this….” He walked off, mumbling some shit about ‘Chad’ and ‘Stacy’. Maybe friends of his? Whatever.

Now alone, Cait and I sat in awkward silence.

“So… I’m just going to start.” She began to look through a selection of movies on the wall, avoiding eye-contact. “I’m sorry for disappearing on you. My sister and I have issues, as you can probably tell at this point. I… don’t think I should get into it yet; we have only been dating for a little, and it involves some very personal things.”

“I understand! Family can be…,” images of home flash through my mind, but I shake them off, “tough, to say the least. We don’t have to talk about it; I was more concerned about you when it all happened. How you felt and where you went and all.”

Cait smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot. I shouldn’t have ran off… well, I don't mean that I should have stayed, but I shouldn’t have completely left you without saying anything.”

I shrugged, trying to play it cool. “It’s no big deal, really. Shit happens.”

“So… you still want me to be your girlfriend?…”

I smiled. “Of course.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “That’s nice. I was worried, honestly, that you’d meet someone else before I could muster the courage to get back to you!”

Memories of fucking Hana popped up, and the pit in my stomach stung.

The rest of the time was spent looking at movies. I suggested a few, but she mostly grabbed movies from some DVD companies that only did artsy-fartsy movies I hadn’t heard of. I didn’t realize until a hour in that this was now a date, rather than a rekindling. We laughed, we spoke, we caught each other’s gaze and looked away with a blush; maybe this reflects poorly on me, but the cheating-made pit in my stomach faded and was replaced with the warm, fuzzy butterflies.

I preferred the butterflies.