This is the tenth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, and Part IX before continuing.
Once we ran out of champagne, Ana wanted to go bar hopping to celebrate, but I reminded her she had to go back on the air tomorrow, and she wouldn’t want to show up to her second day at the anchor desk hung over.
What I didn’t tell her is that I was still slightly hung over and exhausted from my own binge the night before.
Ana agreed, and after a final, congratulatory hug, we went our separate ways.
As soon as I got home, I wished I had gone out drinking with Ana because Randy was standing in the hallway looking at the boxes full of his stuff as though they were a complex math problem.
“What the hell is all this?” he asked when he saw me.
“What does it look like?”
“A fire hazard.”
OK, I had to give him that. I had pushed all the boxes up against one wall so as not to completely block the hallway, but it was still probably breaking a fire code or two.
Instead, I replied with, “Well, then you’d better get it out of the way before someone complains.”
“Someone has already complained. They called me, and they said they called you, but you weren’t answering.”
I had forgotten to take my phone off Do Not Disturb after the show ended. I did so now, and my phone lit up with messages and missed call notifications. Sure enough, one of our neighbors had called me, Randy had called and texted me, and Jessica had texted me about setting up an appointment with my GP to get a prescription for an antidepressant.
I quickly shoved my phone in my purse so Randy wouldn’t see that message. I mentally kicked myself for completely forgetting about that. Now the doctor’s office was closed, so it was too late to make an appointment. I’d have to make a note to remind myself to do it tomorrow, but I wasn’t about to do that with Randy here. One problem at a time.
I looked back up at him and said, “Oops,” with absolutely no remorse.
He sighed heavily. “Really?”
I gestured at the boxes. “Does it look like I’m joking?”
He looked at the boxes like he was disappointed in them. I knew I was the one he was disappointed in, but I was way beyond caring.
“Have fun!” I said cheerfully as I brushed past him.
“Wait,” he said as I was unlocking the front door to my apartment.
I turned and looked at him expectantly.
“Can’t we at least talk about this?”
“Talk about what?”
“Everything. Just because things didn’t work out between us doesn’t mean I don’t want you in my life.”
I laughed. It was harsher and higher pitched than my usual laugh – almost like a cackle, which I found kind of disconcerting, and judging by the expression on Randy’s face, so did he.
I tried to come up with the words to tell him that was never going to happen, but so many different responses jammed themselves into my head all at once, I couldn’t land on one answer. So, I decided to let my weird laugh be my answer as I turned my back on him, entered my apartment, and shut the door in his face. I even locked it, which was overkill, and also totally pointless since he still had a key to the apartment, but it made me feel better.
To be continued…