That was all they were ever going to be now: just moments in time.
“Fuck this shit,” I whispered and I decided I shouldn’t let myself drown in sorrows. I had to go out there and fix my life. I started looking around, hoping I could find that handsome guy, and start our conversation again. Maybe I should be the one checking out his fantasies instead of the other way around.
And then the television got my attention.
It was on the sports channel but a news flash interrupted the football game – where local superstar Damon Wessic was currently playing – to focus on a violent car accident. It took place between this small country town and the city, right off the interstate highway.
I was going to ignore it since I didn’t like gruesome news stories but then I saw who was involved.
I could recognize that name and that face from a million miles away.
I felt an anchor suddenly drop in my gut. I wanted to freaking vomit.
In that moment, I dropped everything I was doin
g and quickly ran outside the bar.
All of a sudden, my whole world crashed upon me and I felt my heart skip a beat when I thought about all the harsh things I was just about to do. I had to fix things before it was too late – it probably already was but I had to give it a shot anyway.
I got into my car and just like that, I drove back to the city, hoping that when I’d get there Dylan would still be alive.
I needed to say sorry. I needed to say that even if he’d throw me out and never love me I would still love him.
I had to do it before he was gone forever.
9
Dylan
What day was it? W-what time was it?
I looked at my watch. I couldn’t read the hands – my vision was a little blurry. I whipped out my phone and tried to make sense of the time and date. Hmm… holy shit, it was three o’clock in the morning? Was that right?
Just how drunk was I? I looked around and tried to remember where the fuck I was. It took me a good five minutes – maybe fifteen, now that I really think about it – to realize I was in some slump of a bar. It was a real ugly dump that smelled of vomit and cheap beer. Why the hell was I here instead of Mercury Wild?
Then I saw a girl leaning on my side. Who was she? She was unconscious and snored like an elephant. She smelled of alcohol and cum. Wait, was she the reason I was here? Did I hook up with a cheap whore here?
At the moment I was so confused. My head was spinning with a splitting headache and I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I scoured through my phone again to see if I could recall anything about the hours leading up to this moment.
No, it wasn’t just hours. It was weeks. Even as I browsed through my phone I knew, deep inside, the exact reason I was here. Cherry was the sole reason of my misery.
Well, it was my fault. I pushed her away.
It had been seven weeks – or was it eight – since we last spoke. I stormed into my home office and she… signed the final document and then left. She never said goodbye and neither did she ever bother me again via text message or online. She just stopped messaging me entirely. It was like she never existed. It was like we never had a thing going.
Letting Cherry go was the dumbest thing I had ever done in my life. That one truly took the cake. She was beautiful, hard-working and smart . She was reliable and she was always such a sweet talker. She loved to hug, loved to kiss and at times she loved to just whisper sweet nonsense into my ear just to make me want to make love with her all over again.
“Make love,” I whispered when I realized I just thought of those words instead of something raw like fuck. Maybe she was getting into my head too much.
During the past three weeks, I had nothing to do but work. Every day I would check online or stare at my phone hoping I would receive a message from her but nothing came.
The only time I ever got something didn’t even come from her – it was an email from her father thanking me for the business deal. I only replied to Joel Vergara out of courtesy. There was one time when I was so desperate to talk to Cherry I was tempted to tell Joel the truth. Maybe he should know that I was dating and sleeping with his daughter.
“That’s just stupid,” I pointed out to myself. I then looked at the girl beside me and tried to make some sense out of the stupidity I got myself into.
She was young, maybe around Cherry’s age or even younger, with blonde hair and a lithe little body. She was sexy but also very obviously a whore. I wasn’t sure if her last fuck was with me or someone else. Now I was getting disgusted with her and I wanted to get the heck away from her.
Carefully and slowly, I moved my arm out of her embrace. “Sorry girl,” I whispered softly. “I just don’t want to get in trouble. I bet you were really good in the sack but it’s not a good time for me.”