Status: Contest Entry

Nobody Else

Third

8 years earlier

“I got you Chinese, that okay?” Chris asks as he uses her keys to get into her small studio apartment.

“Yea” he hears her mutter from her bed. He could tell just by the way her vowels dragged that she was focused on something else. As he locked the door he peeked over his shoulder seeing she was glued to the TV. Her arms and wrapped around her legs tightly as if they might slip off and walk away from her.

“Is this all you plan on doing?” He asks as he kicks off his shoes at the door. Strolling through the place with the paper bag full of MSG and grease in his arms.

“What else is there?” She asks completely gone from the world. He frowned at the cause of this distance she put between her and everything else that wasn’t moping and crying. But then he smiled, now that what’s his face was out of the picture there was nothing stopping him.

“Life Sav, you’re not sitting in this apartment again tomorrow”
He plops down on her bed making both of them bounce as he dug through the bag and gathered her food.

“Thanks” she mutters with a semblance of a smirk to her friend.

“Don’t mention it, c’mon stop this…before the night is over I’m gonna make you smile” he says gazing at her with that look she noticed more and more. The one that made her feel uneasy and nervous.

She looks back at the TV and licks her lips, “I don’t know what you’re talking about that was a smile”

“Yea yea and you don’t wanna have sex with me”

Her cheeks burned red and she grinned harder than she would have liked.
“Ha! Almost there” he says touching her chin with his knuckle. She couldn’t have made up the little twinkle she saw in his eyes.

Biting her lips he focused her attention back on Titanic. She didn’t heed his warnings earlier about watching this movie after just being dumped. But she wouldn’t listen, she was convinced anything with Leo would somewhat mend the ache.

It wasn’t until the very end, even after Jack floated into the freezing water that she felt the ache even more.
It was when Rose sad, lonely old Rose dropped the pendant into the water that she realized. She glanced down at Chris as he stared blankly at the TV on his stomach. Before the credits could start she turned the TV off.

“I’m gonna be alone. Forever” she says dully staring into space. Chris watched her for a moment perplexed by her sudden statement.

Had she been someone else seeing a girl admit this she would have chalked it all up to a phase. Knowing that in a year she wouldn’t even remember the guys name.

“You’re not” Chris sighs sitting up beside her and putting a comforting hand on her back.

“I will. Who the fuck would even want to be with me? You know he told me he never saw us as a serious couple” She says mimicking the air quotes her ex used during their breakup at Starbucks.
“Fucking idiot didn’t even know how to use air quotes right” She spits making Chris smile.

It wasn’t until he heard her sniffle that he realized she was crying into her hands. He hated when girls cried, it was always hard for him not to laugh at the choking and gasping. But with her he found that her tears just might have made him hurt just for the simple fact that she was sad.

“You’re right Savannah, he wasan idiot. And that’s exactly why you should know you won’t end up alone”

“How would you know?” She asks spitefully. “You don’t even like relationships”

“I know because…because you’re amazing” he says not knowing exactly what to say, or how to say it.

“Whatever” She groans knowing he was simply being a friend.

“No whatever. Look at me”

She does but sucks her teeth just to show she didn’t want to. When she was gazing up into his blue eyes he cupped her cheek and wiped a tear that fell down it with his thumb.

“You’re beautiful and smart, and funny, and you ha…” he cuts himself off realizing he was reading the wrong list from his head. There were two lists he made in his mind, one to tell her why she wouldn’t be alone and why she was as amazing as he said. And there was another list that was more or less every reason why he loved her. They were pretty much the same thing but the one he mentally labeled ’Reasons Why I Love You’ he wasn’t nearly ready to tell her.

“I what?” she asks wiping her other eye with the back of her hand.

Working himself up to it he looked her in the eye and said.
“I might not be much but, you have me?” he says unsure if she felt that highly of him.

Leaning over he presses his lips to her cheek, not too close to her mouth, and just as simple and complex enough to stop her heart from beating for a second. When he moved away attempting to put some space between them he was pleasantly surprised when his friend placed her hand on the back of his neck and scooted closer. Too close for her to be without him misbehaving.

Chris’ eyes trail up to hers, seeing her stare intently at him.

“What are you doing?” he asks when he feels her foot sliding up his.
She smirked at him and shrugged, she really didn‘t know. Normally she didn‘t have that much confidence to come on to a guy like that. But then again in her mind, Chris wasn‘t just any guy.
Chris’s eyes flicker down to her lips a couple times quickly before he asked her.

“Can I kiss you ?” as neither of them had moved from their intimate position.

She nods feeling that nervous ache he gave her on a daily basis dissipate as he smoothed his lips against hers. It was simple and short but enough to make them both realize there was something more to be explored.

“There’s my smile” he whispers then continues by placing a light kiss against each of her lips.

Present

“Are you sure you don’t want to give it another try?” Lawrence asks as he hesitates yet again putting the papers in his briefcase.
“I can wait a while to file it”

“It’s okay” Chris mumbles rubbing the back of his neck and staring at his wedding ring. He couldn’t take it off just yet and didn’t plan on doing so for a while.
“It’s what she wants”

Lawrence scoffs, even though he was their lawyer he’d been their friend for years. He knew their relationship almos as well as they did.
“We both know how she is man, just give it a while she’ll come to her senses”

He pushes the papers back to Chris, a new stack of papers that he’d made with only her signature. Silently telling Chris he still had a chance to salvage their marriage.

“Not this time, she…she wouldn’t let it get this far. Just file the paperwork please” he sighs feeling completely dry in every sense of the word. He couldn’t cry, he couldn’t laugh, he hadn’t eaten anything in days and it showed.

“Fine” Lawrence was pissed at the both of them and let it be known. What he wouldn’t tell either is that he would wait until the very last minute to make the divorce official.

He gathered the paperwork and put it away more forcefully than necessary.
“I’ll call you later this week”

When the door slammed shut Chris flinched and didn’t move from that spot in the dark and empty dining room for hours. He sat there replaying things from the day they met to the night she told him she wanted the divorce and threw the papers in his face. Cringing at the sound of her crying and screaming at him.
The longer he sat there and thought about it the more he realized how stupid the whole situation was. How a small lie spiraled into a divorce. Before he knew it he was racing out of his house, calling Lawrence’s number frantically until he picked up.

“I need her address” He said out of breath as he made his way to the closest mode of transportation.

He could hear his friends smile through the phone.
“Atta-boy Chris, it’s around the corner from the gallery, I’ll text you it now”

***
It had been 2 weeks since she had spoken or heard from Chris. She didn’t know if the papers were filed and honestly didn’t want to know. All she wanted was to crawl into his arms and forget about everything. But unfortunately it wasn’t that easy. Chris wasn’t about to just waltz up into her apartment and say he was sorry begging for her forgiveness. Though it wouldn’t be the first time he did so since they’d been separated. She knew one more time would be the straw that broke her back. But she was at the same time she was absolutely unwilling to go back to him saying she forgave him.

It was 10 o’clock and her plans went as far as blasting Unbreak My Heart by Toni Braxton on repeat. She was on her second full glass of cheap wine, which sadly was the only thing that wasn’t depressing about her night.

Say you love me again, undo this hurt you caused… Toni wailed over the speakers, accompanied by the unappealing voice of a drunken fool, waving her glass in the air like a lighter.

Going through another two glasses of wine she just about passed out on the couch. Her eyes just closed when there were three hard knocks at her door.

“Who is it?!” She groaned not moving from the spot she lay in.

Chris stood on the other side of the door contemplating whether or not he should say who. Of course she’d find out one way or the other but he figured if she found out from the get the chances of him getting in were a lot smaller.

The knocking continued, Savannah thought about calling the cops knowing that living in New York it was the smartest thing to do. But instead she swung the door open and peaked through it with her head leaned against it.
“Yes?” She drawls tiredly her eyes barely open.

Had Chris not been so pissed at her he would have felt that stop of his heart just from seeing her.

“Are you crazy?” he asks with furrowed brows, maintaining a low tone as he pushed her back into the apartment.
“I could have been anybody and you open the door half sleep” He snaps.

Savannah opens her eyes and her head jerks back.
“Oh so you lecturing me about something?” she asks roughly snatching her body away from his.

“Savannah I’m serious” he says sternly as he steps in the apartment that reminded him a lot of the first place they moved in together.

“I know you are…but that doesn’t change the fact that you just barged into my fucking apartment. What do you want?”

She’d never been so happy in her life to see anyone, automatically she knew if he walked out she’d attach herself to his leg and beg him to stay. But he wouldn’t walk out, that wouldn’t make sense. He obviously came there for a reason.

“I need to talk to you” He says his brows still deeply set down.

“Did you sign the papers?” she asks pretending she wasn‘t ecstatic to see him.

Chris watched her for a moment, every facet and twitch of her face. Her façade was slowly breaking and he could see right through her.

“No, I didn’t” he lied.

“Why the hell not?” She asks folding her arms over her chest.

“Because, I want you to tell me exactly why you want to divorce me”

“Because you fucking cheated on me Christopher”

She was pulling out all the stops to prove she was still mad at him, including his full name.
He grunted and leaned back against her door fisting his hands through his hair and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Savannah, I didn’t cheat on you. I would never do that, you know that”

“Then why did you lie to me?” She asks “Explain that Chris, you felt the need to tell me that you were working late, you had a meeting with your boss and you were with your mother when you were really with her, for no reason?”

He drops his head and inhales deeply.
“I lied because…I knew what you’d think and you wouldn’t talk to me, and I’m not blaming you at all. Or even trying to justify it but she was there.” he trailed off.

“There to what? Rub your back while you bitched and moaned about how fucking terrible I was right?”

He didn’t say a word which only pissed her off more.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to fucking hold your hand, I was busy trying to keep myself sane for you!”

“We’re married Savannah, that’s not only your responsibility anymore...We lost a child” he sighs heavily.
“I didn’t know how to fucking handle that, all I wanted was for you to talk to me. To tell me what you were feeling-”

“But I didn’t” she whimpered as tears fell from the mention of their unborn baby.

“I didn’t talk to you, and you didn’t talk to me. You fell for someone else and I’m wrong for wanting a divorce?” she asks as he quickly denied having feelings for the other woman.

Chris shakes his head no furiously taking a step closer to her.
“You’re not. But you are wrong when you don’t even fucking want it”

“I don’t!” She exclaims as he grasped her hand, hunching a bit so he was closer to her face. She again pulls away from him and shakes her head no.
“But what the fuck am I supposed to do!” She sobs as her chin trembled as it did when she cried.

“Tell me something…” he says taking a step back just to see how she’d react. When he saw her flinch forward as if she was going to grab him he almost smiled.

“Can you honestly say you don’t want to see me again. That you like waking up alone; cause I’ll admit right now Sav it fucking sucks for me. I hate it.”

She bit her lip and looked away from his prying gaze.
“No” She whispers her voice shaky and weak.

“No what?”

“No I don’t want that, and I hate it too. But you not wanting to wake up alone and with me are two completely different things” Her voice cracked from beginning to end making her drop down to a whisper.

“What?” he asks.

“Do you just want someone to wake up to…or me?” She asks

Chris’ eyes widen and he steps forward, “I want you” he didn’t know anything else he could say. She’d completely floored the man.

“Savannah Evans, you are the only one I want, there’s nobody else. I’m sorry that I made you doubt that for even a minute” he pulls her into his arms in a flash seeing her eyes close as more tears fell.

She held him as tight as she could, standing on her toes so she could get a better grip.
“I’m so sorry” he whispers into her hair after having inhaled its scent for a while. His grip was close to hurting her but she didn’t care.

“You hear me?” he asks pressing his lips to her head, feeling her tears soak through the t-shirt he wore.

She nods against his chest eagerly, “I hear you” her sobs died down and she just seemed to be leaking tears.

“You love me still?” he asks making her smile through her tears.

“I love you still, Chris. So much”

He sighed heavily, feeling like it was the sigh he’d been holding for weeks.
“Come home, please” he says moving back to gaze down at her.

Lot’s of packing and 2 hours later

Savannah could have made love to the bed and forgotten all about Chris. But that would be for when she was alone. Currently in a pair of his sweats and his shirt she was the happiest she’d been in a long, long time. They were glued at the hip and loved every second they were.

“Where you goin’?” Chris asks gripping her to him when she tried to sit up. God forbid she had to pee he might follow her to the bathroom.

“Nowhere, I just wanna look at you” she smiles gazing down at him as she sat beside him with her legs crossed. She brushes her hand against his cheek and chuckles.
“You weren’t actually going to move back home were you?” she asks.

Chris smiles and replies, “Yes” while shaking his head no.

“Doofus” She replies as he grasps both her hands and laces his finger with hers, holding them in the air as they stared at each other.

“I was probably gonna stalk you”

She eyes him weirdly, “That’s not creepy at all”

“Nope that’s love for ya”

She leans closer to him, holding his hands above his head, slowly she descended her lips onto his own. It was the first time in over a month they’d kissed. And the first time in even longer that they kissed each other like they wanted and needed to, not like it was some stale chore as they had become accustomed to before.

Chris’ eyes were still closed when she pulled away and he wanted to grab her and tell her never to stop.
“C’mere” he grouses licking his lips and tasting her on them.

Smiling she lets his hands go and lays half way on him. Her chin against his chest and her legs slightly entangled with his as she gazed up at him.
“What you said earlier, about not wanting anyone else-”

“I meant it” he cuts her off wrapping his arms around her waist and guiding her up higher so he could kiss her until they couldn’t breathe.

“I know you meant it…when you said it, it just reminded me of that night we first kissed”

He nods smirking at her, “Never forget that”, he kisses her again very lightly and lets his lips linger.

“Mmmh” She sighs against his lips, “Say it again”

“I only want you” he grips her body tightly and turns them so he’s on top. Pecking her neck, making her shiver as he trails wet kisses up to her lips, “Nobody else”.
♠ ♠ ♠
The end.
so far...
I'm pretty sure I'm going to turn this into a series of some sorts.
It won't be in any order just random things I feel like writing about them idk...
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Hope you enjoyed this :D