Discovering Mack

8| Eight

Hurt turned to anger. Anger turned to indifference when Noah disappeared for the whole day on Sunday. That meant I didn't get to talk to him. I didn't get to confront him. I didn't get to end our relationship once and for all. I considered moving my own stuff out, but I pay for the house, I pay all the bills, and I do all the cleaning and maintaining, so why should I lose that when he is the one who broke us?

Now it's Monday morning and I'm agitated. I can hardly concentrate on what the boss is telling everyone in this meeting. I don't even notice that my leg is bouncing up and down until Tristan places his hand gently on my thigh. I shoot him a grateful smile, which he returns with a look on his face that asks 'are you ok?'. I didn't get to update him after he comforted me over the phone. He knows I'm not ok, but isn't pushing it. I purse my lips and give a small nod. It's not important right now.

The boss is going over budgets for the new campaign when my phone buzzes on the desk in front of me. I quickly snatch it up before too many people notice, glancing down to read the notification.

Noah- babe can I borrow $50 till payday tomorrow, love you.

My body stiffens, the anger is back and I'm sure it's radiating from me in waves. The nerve this guy has to disappear for days, cheat on me and then ask me for money like nothing is wrong. Does he think I'm stupid?

Well obviously.

Maybe I am. I've been letting him get away with this behaviour for so long. Too long. But enough is enough. I wanted to talk to him in person, but it can't wait any longer.

I grip my phone tight in my hand as I try to pay attention to the meeting again. I resist the urge to reply with a smart remark about how payday is for people who work, receiving an unemployment benefit hardly counts as pay.

My heart rate increases the angrier I get, and it must be noticeable now because both Tristan and Scarlett are glancing at me every minute or so.

Finally we are dismissed. I don't wait, scooping up my diary, pen and phone and I'm first out the room. I burst out of the office and into the elevator. Even though I know that pressing the same button over and over again won't make it move any faster, I still do push that damned button over and over. It's enough to distract me from the time the elevator is taking to reach our floor.

When the doors finally slide open, I step inside and push the button for the rooftop garden, knowing that I would have a bit more privacy for the call I'm about to make. Before I'm even walking out of the elevator, I have my phone to my ear, hearing it ring, then the sound of the call connecting as I walk to the edge of the roof.

"Hey Mack, did you get my text?" Noah says on the other end of the phone, totally oblivious to the hell about to be unleashed on him. He speaks as if he wasn't gone almost all weekend sleeping with lord knows who. He speaks like it's just any other day in our mundane lives.

It only makes me angrier.

"Yes I did get your text and no, you can't have any money from me. You can't have anything at all from me anymore Noah," I reply coldly, my tone firm and final and I'm actually impressed with myself for holding it together.

"Mack? Is this the same shit you were going on about last week? I thought we sorted that out."

"The same shit? What sort of fool do you take me for Noah? Huh? You just disappear for days at a time, you don't talk to me until you want something, you haven't even tried to have any semblance of a relationship with me for months now! Having some twisted as fuck angry sex and a conversation with no resolution is not sorting it out!"

I know I'm yelling, my hands are starting to shake and tears are forming in my eyes. I'm pacing back and forth as I speak, trying to steady myself enough to say what I need to.