Chapter 60
Juliana
Hanging up the phone with Kurt, I check the time. Only 5:30, I have time to finish before Callum shows up, I keep tapping at my keyboard. A few minutes later I hit print, officially finishing my letter of resignation. It’s time to move on from my current retail job and move up in the world.
I sigh and sit back, rubbing at my eyes a little. It hits me just how exhausting these last few days have been, weeks really. Reluctantly, I push myself up to get to the printer. After triple-checking the final paper, I see no mistakes and mark my end date in my calendar. I remind myself to tell Tatyana and hope she’ll plan a girls’ night out to celebrate. I also have big news to tell her.
I check the time again, it’s only 6, so I decide to call Tatyana.
“Hey, what’s up?” She answers the phone almost immediately.
“Were you waiting for me to call?” I laugh, teasing.
“Of course, I’m already headed to my car, so if this call isn’t to remind me to come home and help you get ready for your date with Callum…well that is too bad because I’m coming home anyway. I’ll be there in ten minutes or less.” She adds before hanging up the phone but not before I hear the start of her engine.
I plug my phone into my charger and then decide to pop into the shower, leaving the apartment door unlocked, knowing that she has probably left her key behind at Mike’s house. I hear the door close while I’m in the shower and hear Tatyana yell out that she’s here. All of a sudden, the bathroom door opens and a hand holding a glass filled with something appears thrust through the shower curtain.
“Uhm hi, can I help you?” The cup wiggles back in response to my question.
“Just take the cup.” I roll my eyes, which I realize she can’t see then take it and set it on the soap dish in the shower. I hear a dejected sigh and the clunk of the toilet seat being shut before a thud of someone sitting on the lid.
“What’s wrong, T?” I peek my head around the curtain and eye her. She raises her glass to ‘cheers’ me before taking a drink and then responding.
“Men suck,” she says after making a face from what must be hard liquor. She must not have minded it because she takes another sip, making the same face again.
“Tell me about it,” I say before disappearing back into the shower to finish up.
“Oh, I will.” She pauses and I assume she’s taking another sip. “Dammit, I’m out.”
“Here,” I hand my glass out to her and she takes it but then I hear another dammit. “What?” I ask as I turn off the shower, squeezing the water out of my hair and then grabbing my towel and wrapping it around myself before pulling the shower curtain back.
Tatyana is sitting on the toilet lid glaring at the glass. “You don’t drink, so I poured you a glass of tea.”
We stare at the deceiving little glass and then we both burst out laughing. Once we have calmed down, I speak.
“Go give yourself a refill while I get dried off. Then you can tell me all about why men suck. I mean I have my own reasons, but I have a feeling you’re about to add to the list.”
“Oh, you know it. Hurry up.”
“Get out,” I shoot back at her and wait while she grumbles and exits the bathroom.
I get out of the shower, wrap my shower towel around myself, and use my towel to dry my hair a bit. I look at myself in the mirror and decide Callum can wait. I head into my bedroom and grab my phone sending a quick text telling Callum something came up and I’ll have to cancel tonight. He responds almost immediately with a sad face emoji, I send back a text asking for a rain check and he quickly agrees. I let him know I’ll call him later in the week and set up a time. I don’t wait for a response, putting my phone down and quickly changing into an old t-shirt and pajama shorts.
Emerging from my bedroom, I find Tatyana sprawled on the couch staring at the TV. I turn to look at it and frown. I go and kneel in front of her.
“The TV isn’t on, T.” She sits up and blinks a little.
“What kind of liquor is this?” She holds up her newly refilled glass and eyes it.
“I don’t know, babe, it’s yours. You bought it.” I laugh and go to the kitchen to make us both some water and a snack.
When I come back to the living room, I switch her drink for some water which she is reluctantly grateful for. I set all the snacks down and settle in beside her. “Okay, what did Mike do to make you feel this way? I thought everything was going well.”
“Well, yeah, that’s the issue. I thought everything was too. When we went on vacation, I knew he would be busy working but the fact that he invited me to go… Well, it made me think some things…” Tatyana trails off and I feel my eyes widening before her face shifts into a grimace. I fix my face quickly.
“Oooh,” I say softly. “Oh, I mean, I can kind of see why you’d think that. And you guys have had that conversation before,” I say and Tatyana nods eagerly. “So, what happened? You seemed fine when you came back from the trip.”
“Well, I wasn’t. It was a good trip but obviously, I had expected something more. So, the next weekend I asked him about it and he laughed. He actually laughed at me. I didn’t handle that well,” Tatyana tells me and I nod, understanding. “I lashed out at him and got upset at his reaction. He did not handle that well either. And now, all we do is argue. Not even in person! We’re arguing over text because he’s been too busy to see me.” Tatyana has started crying now. I hand her tissues to wipe her face.
“So, what do you want to do?” I ask as she sniffles.” You love Mike.”
“I do, so much. But after our blowup in person he’s just acting so different. He used to always want to spend time with me but now he’s too busy and I have no idea what’s going on because he won’t even talk to me.” Her cries break my heart and I pull her into a giant bear hug.
When our hug ends, I pull back and look her over. She still has tears on her cheeks but the amount is subsiding. I dab at her face with a tissue then hand her more water. While she drinks, I think up a game plan.
“Okay,” I say when she finishes the water. “Do you want to formulate a plan to resolve this or do you want to wallow in self pity for a bit?”
“Self pity,” Tatyana says pretty quickly. I laugh.
“Okay, fine. You let me wallow more than once so I am onboard as well. Wallow in self pity for a few hours and then we’ll get our shit together, okay?” I clarify.
“Perfect,” Tatyana says before grabbing the remote.