He didn't deserve anything from me.
Straightening to flop my head back, I winced when I hit something, and I twisted sharply. Opening my mouth to yell at whatever inanimate object had the audacity to bang my head, my mouth dried immediately. The naked, dripping wet chest that whirled around to face me rippled with tension, and my eyes almost boggled out of my head. Trailing up, my pupils blew as a familiar, shocked face flooded my vision.
"Melissa?" Carl sounded as surprised as I felt.
My chest tightened as all my emotions hit me square in the gut. He pulled out his ear buds, his features twisting in concern. Huge, fat tears started streaming down my face, and I grappled my chest with both my hands. My lungs were on fire, unable to expand from the sheer magnitude of my feelings crowding them.
"Oh, shit— hey—"
He leaped over the wooden railing of the cabana, crouching on the bench to snatch my purse off the table. My wheezes rose above the rain, blood pounding against my ear drums as my heart rampaged through my chest with no care.
"Here— here, close your eyes and focus. It's okay." Holding my inhaler to my mouth, Carl cupped the back of my head gently. His soft, soothing words barely breached my muddled mind, and I managed a shallow breath of medicated spray. "It's okay. I'm here. Just relax, Mel."
My head spun even as my inhaler did its job, and Carl set it down with a clatter to gently stroke the length of my throat. Icy prickles pierced between my ribs and gripped my heart, and I clenched my jaw hard as I took great, heaving gasps through my nose. Shivering hard, I cracked open my throbbing eyes but immediately shut them again. A strangled noise escaped me, my fists flying to bang weakly on Carl's chest.
"Fuck! Fuck! God damn—" Grinding the slurs through my teeth, a sob tore from my throat. Panting furiously, I glared through my tears as steam practically poured from my ears. My brief attack left my breathless, flames engulfing my chest and spine. Tremors gripped every muscle in my body, and hot air that I couldn't replace invaded the thin space between my brain and my skull.
"Melissa?"
The coo snapped my eyes up, and I tensed as Carl cupped both my cheeks. His touch was so warm, battling the frigid cold that threatened to overwhelm me.
"Hey... what happened, huh?"
"What the Hell is wrong with him?" My voice broke harshly, and my lips tingled wildly as I pursed them together.
Slowly, Carl dragged his palm down to my chest, and I automatically took as big a breath as I could manage. The worry in his eyes didn't ease, but the tension in his face did, and he nodded a little to himself.
"He didn't even say 'hi'!"
"You wanna talk about it?"
Shaking my head hard, my hair whipped at my face, and I sniffled hard. Leaning back, Carl sat down with a low grunt to let the silence fill the air. The rain hitting the concrete sidewalk behind me slowly filtered back into my scope of comprehension, and my goosebumps started receding. An ache began to pound behind my eyes.
"... He told me he met some richer-than-God woman that made my mom look poor." Out of the corner of my eye, Carl tensed at my rasp, his eyes boring holes into the side of my face. Glaring hotly at my phone on the table, bitterness stained my tongue. "She's probably some young divorcee that blackmailed her ex into supporting her lifestyle somehow. Scum attracts scum. He said he was gonna bag her and get all her money. What the Hell kind of person is he that he says that like he's proud of it? That he's got this amazing, genius idea and— I mean— he's balding, for God's sake!"
Blurting out that last part in utter disgust, a hard shiver lodged between my shoulder blades.
"That... I really don't know what to say to that, Mel. I'm sorry you have to go through all this."
Reaching with trembling hands to wipe my face roughly, I sniffed painfully before grabbing my purse.
"For what it's worth, I didn't even notice you or hear anything you said."
"You got what you wanted, though." His gaze on me turned questioning, and I plucked out a tissue from the packet to cast him a sidelong glance. "I had an asthma attack, and you saw it this time."
"You had a panic attack that triggered an asthma attack, so it really didn't help me much. I'm sure it felt a lot worse than it was because of the former."
Scrunching up my nose in distaste, I ducked my head to blow and wipe as discreetly as I could.
"Do you want me to give you the names of a few therapists to help you through this?"