The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Part II

Callie's POV:

I woke up that next day, it was Christmas Eve morning, with a viscous headache. Between the bottle of red wine I drank and from crying most of the night, I felt and looked like crap. I'm pretty sure the bags under my eyes could've acted as life preservers in The Sound, they were so inflamed.

After I got up, I washed my face, brushed my teeth and pulled my hair back. I decided to crawl back into bed after my brief, but strenuous bathroom routine. It was at that moment, there was a light knock at my door. 

"You can come in," I responded back to the knocking.

"Hey, it's me." Renee had pushed my door open enough to stick her head through. "Mind if I come in for a sec?"

"Knock yourself out," I said in a deflated tone. "Just don't let my gawd awful appearance scare you."

Renee pushed the door open more, and set down coffee, water and a bottle of ibuprofen on my bedside table. 

"I thought maybe you could use any or all of these after your night."

"Thank you Renee, that was thoughtful of you. And yes, I need all of those this morning. Was I crying that loud last night?"

"No, I just know how I'd be feeling if I were you at this point. It's never easy breaking up with someone that has been a significant part of your life for this long."

"Sounds like you have been dumped in your past? Who'd want to leave you?

"My ex-wife did after 20 years of being together. Mind if I sit on the other side of the bed?" I shook my head, no, as she plopped on the adjacent side of me. In spite of how I felt about Arizona, I really liked this girl, it was rather annoying because it would be so much easier to not like her.

"Why did she leave you? Did she cheat on you like Penny cheated on me?"

"No. And I am not proud of my actions, but I cheated on her."

"You cheated on your wife, Renee?! I'm kinda shocked to hear that knowing what I do about you."

"Like I said, I'm not proud about what I did and never talk about it. In the end, I am human and I screwed up. I did a terrible thing, but it also doesn't make me a terrible person. After a lot of tears and heartbreak, I realized all I could do was learn from the situation and try to move on."

"Nothing justifies cheating, but at the time, my wife and I had lost any intimacy we had in the beginning. She never wanted to be physical or wanted to have sex with me. We became the classic scenario of lesbian bed death, or glorified roommates. It was exciting again, to have someone be so attracted to me, that she couldn't keep her hands off of me."

"Does Arizona know about this?" I only asked out of curiosity.

"She does, we've both talked about our pasts and the mistakes we both have made. She thinks the same way about cheating that I do."

"So, are you telling me I should give Penny another chance? Is that the point of your story?"

"Lord no, that's not my place to tell you what to do. Only you can figure that out. I just wanted to tell you my story so you had another perspective. I thought it might help you to feel confident in your decisions, whatever those may be."

"Renee, thank you for sharing that with me, I promise it stays with me."

"Thank you Callie, I appreciate that."

With that, Renee lightly slapped my upper thigh and said, "I better go get breakfast started for little hurricane, Sophia, before she wakes up. When you are ready, come out to the kitchen and I'll make yours too."