Run Right Back

Virginia tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. There was a wave of confusion and hurt swimming over her. The girl gradually recollected herself as she walked around Jon’s bedroom. “No. No, Jonathan. You can’t. I don’t want to.”

Jonathan was trying to break up with her. It wasn’t working.

“Virginia. I want to break up. Please.”

“NO!” She firmly shouted. She had her hands balled into fists. The Christian Louboutins she was wearing clacked against the hardwood floor. Virginia had come directly from the office. Unbeknownst to Jon, the couple was supposed to go to a charity benefit that her law firm was invited to. It was for a children’s hospital. Virginia got changed in her office and went straight to Jon’s to pick him up. Since he had no idea of the event he was in plaid pajama bottoms and a white v-neck. Her hands smoothed out her black silk ruffle dress. “Stop bringing this up, Jonathan. Now get dressed and go out with me.”

That was the problem. Jon had being trying, unsuccessfully, to break up with Virginia for over a week. Ten days. After he saw Kim at the game he went to Virginia’s to propose a break up. He couldn’t even get the words out. He was too frightened about what might happen that he just slept with her instead. The next day he bought her the Louboutins that were now on her feet and told her he cheated on her. That in cheating on her, he wanted to break up. She ignored the words and undressed him. He was too weak do anything, too stunned that she ignored the fact that he said he cheated on her. Now was the time for him to put his foot down. He couldn’t be dating her any longer.

Jon fell backwards onto his bed. He covered his face with his hands. “Virginia, can you honestly say we are happy as a couple? Are we even a couple at this state?” Her heels clacked against the hardwood floor. She was pacing. “I cheated on you. Why do you want to stay together?”

“Because we make sense together. I’ll forget that you told me you cheated on me, okay? Can you just stop talking about breaking up? Can it just go back to how it was, Jonathan?” The iron woman was showing emotion. It made her edgy. Her slim feet slipped out of her heels. She crawled next to his side on the bed. Her head looming over his.

He peeked through his fingers. Her face was so sad that he could feel himself cracking again. This is what made it so hard for him to leave her. At the worst possible moment she could morph into a pathetically sweet and innocent girl. Jon just needed to remind himself of how cold she could be. But he was the reason she was soft. He was the reason she regressed from being a cold bitch 24/7 to showing sparks of warmth.

He looked up at her. “Virginia Olivia Hurst. What are we doing?” Her puppy eyes only blinked. “We haven’t been right for weeks. We have been off. I don’t think we are supposed to be together.”

“Who are we supposed to be with then?” It wasn’t polite of Jon to say ‘Kim’. He didn’t even know if he was supposed to be with her, if they are ‘soul mates’. He just knew he would rather be with Kim. “Who am I supposed to be with if not you? Who are you supposed to be with? The girl you cheated on me with?” Virginia pulled back and folded her hands into her lap. “Was it the ex-girlfriend that was giving you such a headache? The one you never told me about before?”

Again, Jon held his tongue. He didn’t want to talk. He just wanted Virginia to accept the fact that they are done. He wanted her to walk away so he could breathe freely. Then he could call Kim and set things right.

There was a moment of silence. A moment that didn’t last for long. “Goddamnit, Jonathan. Speak to me. What do you want from me? Shall I change? I can change for you.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” he groaned.

“Then what?” There was a desperation in her voice that made her tone warble, something he wasn’t used to. Jon snapped up. He no longer hid behind his hands. “What can I do?”

Jonathan looked at her face and then to her fidgeting hands. “I am so sorry, Virginia, but there is nothing that you can do. This act won’t work.” And like that, the magic words said in the air, Virginia snapped from being a sniveling and groveling girl to being Virginia, robotic and frigid. “I am a bad guy. I am horrible to you because even though I haven’t seen her in three years, I still have these crazy strong feelings for her. I am sorry. I love her. I didn’t realize how much I loved her until she was gone and back again. And I was wrong to cheat on you. But it felt like I was cheating on her with all the time I spent with you.”

The words were vicious to Virginia’s ears. While he spoke them plainly and without much censorship, she found them biting. Virginia slapped him roughly across the mouth. His eyes sprang from looking to her hands to her face. Her lower lip was snarled back and her nostrils were flared. “Fine then. Fine. We are done. Just what you wanted. I don’t want to try to come back to me when this girl rejects you. I don’t want to hear from you again.” She stood up and walked over to the bedroom door. “Jonathan,” her voice ever so monotone and cold, “honestly, how are you supposed to get anywhere being this weak boy that lets women control him? When I first met you I was shocked at your achievements. You seemed far too much of a jelly fish to be a man who has won a Stanley Cup, Olympic gold, and that other crap. You are a spineless child.”

“Really, Virginia? Because I am pretty sure I just broke up with you. That was my own doing.” He was still slightly dazed from the abrasive slap.

“Would you have done it if you hadn’t seen your tart ex-girlfriend?” Virginia wanted to tear him to shreds. She wanted to transform his room into a court room, her domain. “You wouldn’t have, Jonathan. Seriously, it took you more than a week to really break it off with me. In that time you bought me an expensive gift and tried to soothe me over with intercourse. You always need someone else making the moves for you. You don’t make the first move.”

His jaw swung open. “Are you being serious? Your crazy bitch ass wouldn’t let me break up with you.” He regretted saying the words ‘crazy bitch ass’. His mind wasn’t letting him process his words before he spat them out. “I am not spineless. I am the nice guy. I did that shit because I was trying to do the honorable thing.”

“You fucked your ex-girlfriend. Where is the honor in that? Where is your nicety?!”

“Virginia, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?” He covered his face with his hands, shaking his head. “Fine, I wasn’t a nice guy. I fucked up. I fucked my ex-girlfriend. Virginia, can you please just leave?”

She slipped back into her Louboutins and clicked against the floor. Click click click. “You got the satisfaction of dumping me. I want the satisfaction of destroying your misconception of yourself.”

His feet slammed against the ground. He rose from the bed. “What the fuck did I ever do wrong to you besides stop loving you? You are bitter and hurt, Virginia. Don’t you remember how I was there for you when you needed me? When you had those long nights at the office and I had just finished a game? I still drove my ass to your office to keep you company even though I was exhausted. I visited your family. I became friends with your friends. I went to the stupid benefits your boss did because you asked me to go. I held you in my arms before we went to bed because it helped you go to sleep. What the fuck did I do wrong?”

Virginia couldn’t keep a straight stare with him. Her eyes kept flitting away, fighting the tears that wanted to rush down her cheeks. She couldn’t even open her mouth to say anything. She was truly hurt and broken by this break up. He made her feel something she hadn’t before and now everything was blowing back in her face. “You’re right.” Virginia ran out of the bedroom, scuttling to the front door.

“Wait, Virginia! I was too harsh. Fuck. Virginia.” He called after her, walking after her skittering clicks. The front door opened and she was out. Jon jogged after her but was stopped at the doorway by guests. His brother and Crow blocked his exit. They were carrying fountain drinks.

The two simultaneously cocked their heads to the side. “She was crying,” Crow commented.

“You finally broke up with the bitch?” They both slurped on their straws at exactly the same moment.

Jon’s nose flared out. “Even though I broke up with her, doesn’t mean you get to call her that.” He turned on the balls of his heels and went back into his room. “Keep it down with your Call of Duty battles.” The bedroom door slammed behind him. He crawled under his bedcovers. On a piece of stray paper he wrote in bold letters the word ‘single’. The piece of paper was placed on his pillow. He swiped his phone off his nightstand and took a picture of him looking at the piece of paper on his king sized bed. He sent the picture to Kim. A picture a day. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Forty minutes later Kim texted him back. “Pick me up at my place this Sunday at 4:00 PM. Wear a nice suit. Be prepared to drive. –K”