Maxine

Chapter 2

I stirred in my sleep at the knock on the door. I rolled onto my side, cringing at the grogginess in my head, followed by a continuous hammering against my skull. I looked at the digital clock on the nightstand and grimaced when my eyes landed on the time. "Mrs Heyns?" A voice called from the other side of the door, followed by another knock.

"Coming!" I called, getting up from the bed. I stumbled over to the door, almost tripping over my feet. I pulled the door open and was greeted by a young man dressed in a hotel service suit. "Morning, madam. Apologies for waking you up. There is a phone call for you downstairs, can I pass it through to your room?" He asked. "Yes, please." He nodded. "Is there anything else that I can get you?" He asked. "If you find me some Aspirin then that will be great," I answered.

He nodded and then walked off.

I shut the door and grimaced when I looked at the room, scattered bottles laid on the floor, looking like I had one hell of a party for just one person. The phone next to my bed buzzed and I picked it up, sitting back down on my bed. "Maxine," I answered rubbing my eyes.

 "Morning, sweetheart." I shut my eyes when I recognized the voice. I hate that endearment he uses for me. I wonder how his mistress feels about it that he calls his now-ex-wife, sweetheart? "Thanks for our anniversary surprise." Was he already calling to check on me, to make sure I was signing the papers? "What are you talking about?" He dared to play dumb. 

"Please don't let me spell it out for you. You know exactly what I am talking about." I didn't want to fight especially feeling like this. 

"Why didn't you tell me a week ago that you were planning on a divorce? What happened to just taking a break from each other?" I don't even know why I am asking this because whatever answer he is going to give, is not going to the one I want to hear. All this time Mark and I thought we were living a life filled with different sets of colours, only to discover, everything we lived for had no meaning.

"I fell in love, Maxine. You and I ended a long time ago." His excuse made me bitter.

"Then why agree to a break instead of a divorce?" I asked softly even though I wanted to scream at him and take all of my frustrations out on him but it won't do any good. He will only tell me that I'm selfish. "Was it even real?" I asked, even though I already had the answer. 

"In the beginning, yeah but we started to drift apart." What he means, is that I didn't satisfy his needs in the bedroom because I wasn't woman enough for him. 

"Why give me hope when you knew there was none?" I was growing impatient with all of his lies.

"You would've tried to change my mind." Why does it feel like I was the only one who tried to save us? Was I that naïve? Thinking that we can overcome this and move forward together. I was wrong. He is moving on without me and I was the fool who fell for it. 

"I'm really sorry, sweetheart." I closed my eyes as a tear escaped from my eye. "Don't. You don't get to say that to me. Not now. Not ever." I was mad at myself for wanting to cry over someone who didn’t even deserve it. He gets to say sorry and pretends that it was nothing. He cheated. Lied. He is a selfish man who only cared about what he wanted. Instead, fighting for what he had.

"You're upset." He noted. Yes, I was. He is just walking away from me as if our marriage was a joke to him. I wasn’t upset about the papers but because he had the nerve to call me the next day as if he didn’t go behind my back and he thinks calling me “sweetheart” would make me swoon all over him.  

"No, I just can't keep up with you anymore. One moment you whisper something nice in my ear and the next you are moving on without me." There was a knock on the door and I realized that it was time to go.

"I have to go. I've got a flight to catch." I dropped the call before he could say anything.

I wiped the tears away from the corner of my eyes before making my way over to the door. The young bellman returned with a few Aspirins.

"Thank you." I thanked.

"No, problem, madam. Should I return in a few minutes to collect your bags as your car is waiting for you downstairs to take you to the airport?" I nodded. He then nodded at me and left, giving me a few minutes to gather my things. Took a shower because I reeked of alcohol and then I had to deal with the white elephant in the room; the divorce papers.

The bellman collected my bags so long while I stared at the papers. "So much for happily ever after," I muttered, signing the papers and slipping them back into the envelope. I called the office, arranging with them to send someone to pick up the papers from the hotel desk as I was leaving for Los Angeles in just a few hours. I dropped the envelope and the hotel room keys off at the desk before exiting the hotel and making my way over to the car driving me over to the airport.

I entered the airport and walked over to the desk where I needed to book in my luggage. I decided to grab a coffee while I had to wait to board the plane when my phone started to ring. "Hey, Lucy," I answered.

"Should I assume that you are at the airport? Which means you are coming to the wedding after all." She asked.

I watched all the planes take off and every now and again they would announce each flights arrival or departure. It would be my first time flying out of Boston and back home, alone. My parents expected a happy couple to hit ground in Los Angeles. Only it was quite the opposite. Mark was in London and I was saying goodbye to Boston, to a part of me that I never want to see again.

"Well, I'm looking at huge-looking aeroplanes taking off," I answered, jokingly as I stood in front of a window looking out on the landing strip. I thanked the barista as she handed me my coffee. "How are you feeling?" She asked, I knew exactly what she was referring to. She was the sister I never had.

She knows about me and Mark. She also knows about the separation and about our sixth-year anniversary yesterday. "As I downed myself in three bottles of really over-expensive wine," I answered.

"At least they were expensive." She tried to lighten up the mood but I was still trying to get over the fact that Mark filed a divorce and had the decency to call me this morning asking me how I was feeling.

"Yeah, I'm practising for Ryan's wedding." Lucy laughed.

 "I think everyone kind of expects you to be the lightweight due to your extreme hard training and dieting." She jokingly said.  

"Yeah, everyone expects all kinds of things from me," Happiness, heroism, and a romantic fairy-tale.

"Listen, I need to get going. They are calling all the passengers to the terminal so we can board the plane." I told her, standing up and throwing my empty cup in the trash. I hauled my small bag over my shoulder and made my way over to the doors where security checked our plane tickets.

"I'll see if I can come around after I dropped my brother off at home." Everything around me suddenly disappeared as her words hit me square on the chest. Was he with her at this moment? "He's coming home?" I asked. "Oh, yeah. He's invited to the wedding." I stopped breathing for a split of a second, as I tried to wrap my mind around it. The Navy let him go to attend a wedding?

"We'll see you in a few," Lucy said, hanging up leaving me staring at my phone. Jason is going to be at the wedding? I haven't seen him in ten years. I slipped my phone into my bag, giving security my plane ticket which they handed back, and gestured for me to enter the plane.

Lucy and I have been friends since pre-school. Since our parents are best friends, we got to see a lot of each other and we grew close. Some days, they feel like family. Jason is Lucy's older brother and he used to be my childhood best friend/ crush. He is two years older than us but for some weird reason, he and I had a lot in common. He is the only boy now man, who understands me and what I want.

We became best friends; it didn't bother him being two years older and hanging out with me and my friends back in elementary school but then high school happened. I was in junior high when he started high school. He became a popular jock and had girls lining up, wanting to be with him and he ended up dating the homecoming queen, Angie.

 I was fifteen years old when I learned that he enlisted for the navy and every five years, he still enlists. This year would be his tenth year serving the navy.

I had a feeling he was doing it to avoid me. Since I used to have a major crush on him. And maybe because I got married to Mark who used to be my high school sweetheart.