Noël

Marital Bliss

I angrily stared at my phone. It was mid-week, five days since I had seen her. Slept in her bed. Touched her.....and was touched by her. I had received nothing from Mali. No texts. No calls. Not even a smoke signal. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero. Not anything at all. I stared at my phone harder. I thought may be if I stared hard enough, she would finally think of me. "Ok, that's it Mali, you can't just show up in my life, turn it all kinds of upside down and then leave!" I said talking to myself, looking in the mirror. "You think you're so pretty and mysterious, oh hello Miss, oh hello Miss, let me pretend to be a waitress at my own restaurant just so I can get one girl's number, have her over at my place, tease the hell out of her, make her want me and then leave!" I said in a mocking voice. "I am so done with thinking about Mali, good riddance." I said turning my back to my own reflection in the mirror. I stood there with my nose in the air pouting, arms crossed for some time. I then turned back and looked at my reflection, laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked talking to myself.

My phone started buzzing. My heart dropped. It worked! It actually worked! Man, I am good. I thought to myself. I quickly checked my text messages. It was Mark. I scowled. It's not that I did not like him, I really did, I just wished he were someone else right now. He sent me a picture of some ice cream and the message under it read: "I know your class schedule is light tomorrow, how about some? My treat." I could smell the icy goodness of each flavor already. "Yes sir." I replied. Not much was needed to please me.

So far, Mark was the perfect guy. He was sweet, he listened, he was romantic and helpful. He was funny and he was way to easy on the eyes. It was almost too good to be true. "4pm good? I got a reply. "Sure thing, papi." I replied. He sent a winking face. Oh yea, I was defiantly going to fuck him. I lay on my bed, trying to make sense of the pile of homework I had accumulated throughout the day. It took me about four hours to get through everything and by the time I had finished it was one in the morning. I yawned and looked over to my roommate, who was curled into a ball entangled with her Hello Kitty blanket, fast asleep.

I thought about myself, ending up with Mark. I thought about all our conversations and how much closer we had grown since that night at the club. He told me he was the middle child of three brothers and how he grew up in a single parent home with his farther. His mother had died when he was very small and his father never remarried. He told me he always had a hard time in school when he was growing up. He would get into a lot of fights and his father was always hardest on him out of the three boys. He was somewhat close to his brothers but since they lived far from each other, it was hard to keep in touch all the time. One of his brother's was pursuing an acting career in California, while the other lived in Florida with his wife. He talked about his dog which was a large chocolate Doberman with blue eyes and floppy ears named Zeus.

He told me he always felt so much pressure to succeed. To be someone worth knowing. We also talked about many of his exes. He even told me this crazy story about how his ex stalked him for months after they broke up and even set his car on fire. We had grown close over the past week. I felt myself really liking him and I started thinking about life actually being with him. I pictured myself, walking out of the house with a spotted apron, a big smiled plastered on my face and a tray of ice cold lemonade in my hands. "Here you go, hunny" I would say, placing the tray on the white glass top table. "Thanks hunny." he would reply with a grin that would rival Ken's. We would laugh the generic happy couple laugh as we watched our kids play on the deep and lush green grass of our home. Ah, marital bliss. I shook my head wildly. What the hell am I doing? I stared off into the corner contemplating if I wanted to admit what just happened. I shuddered. Not today satan, not today.

I quickly got ready for bed. I was so tired juggling classes, Marley's drama and now my conflicting emotions for Mark and Mali. I suddenly realized that I had surrounded myself with people's whose names started with M. I must have a thing for the letter M. I realized that I had to get to bed, I started thinking about things too deeply and that's a sure sign I was going to knock out soon. I lay my head on my pillow and settled in.

I felt the peaceful waves of sweet sleep washing over my body. My eyelids were closed shut and the bed seemed envelope me in a blanket of warmth. I breathed deeply. This was the perfect moment. No one, and I mean no one could ruin this right here. A small smile slid unto my lips. *BUZZZZZZZ* No, hell no! I just got into bed, it cannot be my alarm already. *BUZZZZZZ* The noise came again. Ok, if I ignore it, may be it will go away. The buzzing stopped. I lay there, straining my ears for any signs of animation. Nothing. I closed one eye, taunting fate. I closed the other halfway. This your last chance world, I thought to myself. Still nothing. I fully closed my other eye and snuggled into my white fluffy cashmere blanket.

There was complete silence until it happened again a few minutes later. *BUZZZZ* I threw the blanket off me and quietly but angrily confronted the person on the other end of the line. "What, what is so important that you have to call me this late and it better be good." I still didn't know who was calling, I had not looked at the caller id. There was pause. I heard soft breathing. Wait a minute.....it can't be. My mouth opened in shock. "I've missed you too, Miss."