When Mary Met Halley

Five

No one was in Caleb's room when I went at six in the morning. He looked terrible, covered in even more colors. Some of the wounds on his arms were unwrapped and looked oozy, like burns. The swelling had gone down a little in his face. It was eerie to see him so still. I stood by the bed, which had small railings. "Well," I said in the empty-feeling room. "Here we are."

He lay unmoving.

"So I met Halley," I continued. "She seems nice." The sarcasm was thick. The betrayal tasted so bitter. I hated that he couldn't answer for this. "Seriously, I don't even know what to say about this." I realized I was still wearing my ring and half-laughed. "Guess I don't need this old thing anymore." I slid it off and into the nightstand drawer. Hopefully someone would steal it.

His phone was in there. "Oh really," I said out loud.

I would normally never read through his phone, but he lost his privacy when he forgot to tell his new girlfriend about me. I swiped the lock screen, which used to be a picture of us from the day we got engaged, but was now an ugly landscape with shovels. The dig site. His background was also not us anymore, but a picture of him and Halley, the sun setting behind them. They sat with their arms around each other's shoulders, dirty and grinning, her hair in a bun on her head and he wearing a Sharks baseball hat.

It killed me a little bit. "You fucking asshole," I said matter-of-factly, and quietly, but it took restraint not to throw the phone. I knew the texts probably wouldn't make me feel any better, but I'm a sucker for punishment so I went into his messages.

The last several were, of course, from her, when he didn't meet her or respond. I scrolled though to the afternoon of the accident and read through them with a suffocating grief that grew with the addition of each word.

I'm waiting . . . ???
Where the hell are you, Cale?
I'm seriously getting mad. It's been almost an hour. You can take a second to text me back. I didn't fly all the way here with you for you to do this to me
?????????????
You okay or what? Making me nervous and it's not cool.
Cale. Timeout from everything, please let me know you're okay, idc about anything else just say you're okay
You're not okay, are you
Please baby call me, just call me I'm really worried

Jesus. I scrolled up several pages and stopped randomly. The date was seven weeks earlier.

Him: Omg if he says "like a feather duster" one more fucking time I'll kill us all

Her: I know right!!! Like we don't know how to do our jobs by now

Him: Let's get burritos tonight, I'm dying for carne asada and guac

Her: If we survive this meeting. It'll be our reward

Him: You're my reward

I was sitting in the chair at this point and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. I still couldn't believe it. "How could you do this to us?" I hoped he could hear me and felt like shit. I got falling in love with someone else, and yes it would have been less than fun to tell me. But he should have anyway. He owed me that, if nothing else. After all the years, he fucking owed me that.

I put the phone away. If I read any more I was going to start crying. My heart was a shredded bleeding mess, or maybe that was my soul.

Of course she took this opportunity to show up, the same bun in place on top of her head, the same jeans. She looked in and saw me. Her ears turned pink and she opened her mouth and closed it again.