Arwin resumed his trek towards the restaurant where he was meeting Kelli. He really needed to see his girlfriend’s smile. No matter how bad things got with anyone else, there was always her.
Arwin entered the cafe and nodded to the waitress at the hostess stand.
“Table for one?” she asked, grabbing a menu.
“I’m meeting someone,” he told her with a smile, then headed into the seating area.
The cafe was an elegant affair, an upscale joint more often frequented by those with corporate credit cards and unlimited expense accounts. The wood floor and tables were all of very dark wood. The walls looked like the canvas sacks that coffee beans came in, framed in more dark wood. Fake ivy and tropical plants brought a verdant touch green that contrasted nicely with the almost-black wood.
The coffee and wine bar was brushed steel, staffed by men and women in crisp formal attire. Poised servers wound their way through the busy tables, delivering delicate sandwiches, steaming mugs of coffee and cold steins of beer dripping with condensation. Having been here before, Arwin knew they had a fantastic selection of pasta dishes and served mouth-watering deep-dish pancakes.
The place was filled with sounds: people chatting and the occasional laugh; metal cutlery tinkling on ceramic plates; glasses clinking and ice cubes tumbling. The air smelled of light food and roasted coffee.
Arwin looked around, eyes scanning the tables for someone sitting alone. But none of those women he saw were the very special one he was looking for. Then he spotted Kelli in a more private booth in the back. He came to an immediate halt, startling a male server with his abruptness and almost causing the man to spill a tray of used glasses.
The server just managed to swerve out of the way, grabbing a wayward wine glass and shooting daggers from his eyes before moving past. But Arwin was oblivious.
His body went cold.
Kelli was classy and beautiful, even in her light gray, very professional skirt suit and with her hair tied up in a thick ponytail. Her face was glowing and she had a big smile on her shiny red lips. She had a wine glass in front of her, half gone already.
And she was not alone.
Arwin watched as her lips eagerly plastered themselves to someone else’s. It wasn’t just any kiss. It was the kind of wet, erotically energetic thing that new lovers gave each other, and the man she was with returned it in the same manner, his arms around her, groping her, pulling her towards him.
Arwin edged forward like a zombie, his brain completely shut down. His eyes traveled over the couple. He saw the man’s arm around her shoulders in a comfortably possessive manner, and her arm around his lower back in a much more sexual one. One of her legs draped over his, raising her skirt to dangerously sexy heights. There was no doubt in Arwin’s mind: the way these two moved and touched, they had slept together. Actually, they’d probably been sleeping together for a while.
Arwin studied the guy. The man was slightly older than Arwin and Kelli, maybe in his mid-to-late thirties. His hair was professionally styled. From the confident way he lounged next to her, the expensive suit hanging open, the silk tie slightly loosened, the glittering luxury-brand watch on his wrist, it looked like the guy was pretty well off. He wasn’t particularly good looking or seemingly athletic at all, certainly much less so than Arwin, but, he obviously went to great lengths to appear financially successful. If you liked that type. Arwin knew Kelli did. After all, that was why she wanted him to pursue a career in business.
Kelli looked up as Arwin approached the table. Her red mouth broke into a cute little O. Well, it might have been cute in other circumstances. “Arwin!” she gasped.
Oddly, he still had yet to react to the situation. That puzzled him, for he and Kelli had been dating for almost three years now. Well, maybe it wasn’t that he wasn’t reacting. He didn’t feel angry yet, but he certainly felt stunned. In fact, his face and arms felt somewhat numb and even tingled. Apparently, he’d gone into shock.
Mouth dry, he tried to speak and his voice came out far more awkward and less manly than he desired in this moment. “We had a lunch date,” he croaked. Wow. That sounded lame even to him. He tried to clear his throat.
Kelli and the man slowly disengaged. But she didn’t entirely pull away from him, pulling her arm from behind his lower back but leaving it on his thigh the way a girlfriend might. “Arwin, look—” she tried to say, but fumbled her thoughts, seemingly unsure.
It took Arwin a split second, but he realized that there was no look of panic in her eyes. He gaped at her. “We had a date. We talked about it this morning. In our new apartment. After sex.”
Kelli’s looked down and away.
Arwin knew with sickening certainty then that this ugly meeting was no casual accident. “You set this up!” he accused. At last, shock began to give way and a stab of pain cut into his chest. Nothing had ever hurt this badly before. He’d never before felt so betrayed.
“Arwin, I’m sorry. I really am,” she managed. No denial. Nor did she seem terrible upset or guilty.
Arwin’s thoughts raced. What had he done wrong? How had he screwed up? Had he failed her somehow? He must have, or she wouldn’t be doing this. “Why? Why are you—?” he stammered. “Kelli, I love you. You love me too. What’s going on? What did I do wrong?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just — I don’t think we’re the right match for each other anymore,” she said weakly.
Arwin glanced at the guy next to her. No guilt on his face, no sympathy. He certainly didn’t care one whit for Arwin’s heart being crushed right in front of him. In fact, Arwin suspected that the guy was either annoyed that his make-out session had been interrupted, or glad that he and Kelli would no longer have to sneak around behind someone’s back. Arwin looked at Kelli, unable to suppress some of his contempt from boiling up in the heat of the moment. “It’s because he has money, isn’t it? And, let me guess, he works for a big-name firm, doesn’t he? Just like you wanted me to do.”
“Arwin...” she replied before trailing off, not denying him again. Apparently Arwin’s guess had been right on.
People had begun to take notice of their conversation. Arwin, for one, certainly wasn’t keeping his voice down. Nearby conversations had stopped and heads had turned their way. A server stood nearby, drinks in hand, looking unsure whether she should intervene or not.
“We just signed contracts together on a new apartment,” Arwin exclaimed, only vaguely aware of the attention he was getting. “And bought a car!”
She casually waved the idea away with one hand. “You can keep them both. They’re in your name.”
His mouth fell open. “I can—? How the hell am I going to pay for that all myself now?“ He blinked. “Wait. You knew you were going to do this,” he breathed in shock. “You planned this.”
She raised a hand in defence. “Listen—”
“That’s why you wanted them both only in my name.” The revelation staggered him. “You knew you were probably going to leave me weeks ago, the whole time we were shopping for both. Because you were already fucking him and thought you might have a better option. I was…just your backup plan, wasn’t I? Until you were sure you two were going to be together?”
Kelli looked away. She looked a tiny bit guilty, but not very.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now? How am I going to make all those payments on my own?”
She looked at him like he was dense. “Didn’t you get a new job today?”
“The job was bullshit!” he exclaimed. “Three months unpaid internship before it even started. Then only a pittance to start, which would only cover half the rent and nothing else.”
“Well, maybe you could—“
“I turned it down!”
She looked surprised, then a measure of disgust flashed across her features. “Why? Why would you — ugh.”
“It wasn’t for me. I tried to accept it, even knowing they were screwing me over. I tried to force myself. All so that it would make you happy. So that we could have a life together, the kind you wanted. I thought of making huge sacrifices for you. And here you were, planning to betray me the whole time. Abandon me with a wealth of bills I don’t want for things I don’t need. All the stuff I did to make you happy and you don’t give a damn about my happiness at all.”
A male server appeared next to Arwin and raised his hand, looking for the right moment to interrupt. Most of the cafe had now turned their attention to the ugly conversation.
The asshole next to Kelli tried to butt in, no doubt trying to look strong in front of the girl. He stood up and made a show of trying to look tough. “Why don’t you—“
“Just shut the fuck up,” Arwin threatened in no uncertain tone of voice, not even looking at the guy.
The other man hesitated, then sat back in his seat, unwilling to properly challenge Arwin.
The server, perhaps seeing muscles and veins standing out in Arwin’s neck or hearing the steely tone of his voice, wisely lowered his hand and backed away.
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