Indiscretion: Callie Douglas - Book Four

Chapter Eighteen

"I know I went overtime", I said to Addison as she made another appointment for Grady. "Do I have any lunchtime appointments?"

"No, you don't."

"How many times have you heard from Michael today?"

"Seventeen in total, including the ten from earlier."

"He just isn't letting up, is he?"

"No, he isn't."

"He was just as dogmatic when I first met him. The difference is that I wanted to get together with him then." I took the messages from Addison and looked them over. There were two expressing his undying love, four letting me know that he would be moving in with Blake at the end of the week, and the final one that said that he understood that I was happy with Gabe and that he would respect my wishes. He asked me to call back. "Do you think he was serious when he said that he would respect my wishes?"

"I don't know. I would say yes – he certainly sounded contrite – but the sixteen messages before that message make me question whether he was serious."

"I guess I'll call him to see what he wants." I went into my office and picked up the phone. Calling Michael, the phone immediately went to voice mail. "Hi, Michael. I'm just returning your call. I don't have patients for the next forty-five minutes and all I have to do is go down to the cafeteria for lunch if you want to call back. Otherwise, I will be out of contact again until five o'clock this evening."

I hung up the phone but got an immediate call back, before I even had time to pull out my purse to grab some money. "Hi, Callie. It's Michael."

"Hi. How are you?"

"I'm feeling better, thanks. No, that's not exactly right. I'm feeling better physically, but I'm not feeling better emotionally."

"What's going on?"

"I ran into Mrs. Bettle this morning. She told me off, basically. She said that I was making a nuisance of myself and that everyone in the apartment building wanted me to go away. She said that my complaints were tiresome and that you were a good person who didn't deserve to be hounded the way I was hounding you. It made me think. I didn't think that I was hounding you. I just thought that I was letting you know how much I love you, and that I wanted to get back together again."

"I got that message the first time you told me that. I didn't need to be told that fifty more times to make the message sink in."

"I haven't called fifty times, have I?"

"You have contacted me well over fifty times if you include text messages. Look at your text message app and count the number of times you have contacted me to see what a nuisance you've been."

"I didn't mean to cause you any disquiet. Then, Gabe came to the apartment."

"Gabe came?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes. He told me that you were upset by my constant calling and texting. He said that I had my chance when we lived together, but that I'd lost that chance when I broke your ribs. He said that everyone had to live with the consequences of their actions, and the consequence of my actions is that you broke up with me and, more recently, that any friendship between us would be strained if not broken. He said you value our friendship and were trying to keep it going but that I was giving you nightmares and that any semblance of a friendship would disappear if I continued with the way that I was acting. Is that true?"

"Yes, it is."

"I was giving you nightmares?"

"Yes, you are. I've been very upset with what has been happening. While we were together we were friends. I'd like to become friends again. We'll never get back to the relationship we had, and that's a good thing. Our relationship was full of fireworks, and I now know that fireworks aren't what I want out of life. However, I'd like to salvage a friendship out of the relationship. Especially if you decide to stay in Rockville. This town isn't big enough for the two of us if we're warring."