Forces of Nature { A Novelette }

{ 1 | Overcast }

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"You've reached the phone of Karima McCall. Sorry I couldn't make it to the phone right now, but please leave me a message with your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

"Kari! It's me, Natalia. It's been a while since we last talked, hasn't it? I heard from your sister that you've sort of dropped off the radar recently. I was worried about you, hon... I heard about Win-well, y'know. Him. I was hoping you'd pick up. I'd really love to go get some coffee with you sometime soon, help you get your mind off things. I think it'd be good for you to get back out there. I mean... You know, not in the dating pool, but just... out of your house, you know? ...I'm really worried about you, Kari. As your friend, would you please consider going out with me Saturday? We'll go somewhere nice. Like a coffee shop. No bars, no boys, no booze. Promise. Call me back."

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"I'm really glad you decided to come out with me, Kari."

"I'm not sure how I feel about it yet," Karima looked at her longtime friend, wondering what had gotten into herself. She'd been at home for the better part of a month, waiting for Winston to get back. Part of her knew she was being pathetic and unhealthy, but a larger part of her-the part that was currently winning over her mind-kept convincing herself that she needed to be there. Just in case.

"You'll feel better after you finish your coffee cake and latte," Natalia said, as though the sweets were enough to make all of Karima's problems magically disappear. She was almost offended by Natalia's carefree nature. She knew her longtime companion was truly trying her best, but... but it wasn't working. She was trying, Karima knew, to convince her that Winston wasn't coming back. But Karima just couldn't accept that. He would come back.

He always did.

"So..." Natalia cleared her throat. "Are you-"

"I'm going to move, yeah," Karima said.

"I'd heard from your sis," Natalia said softly. "I don't think... I didn't get the impression that moving was your idea."

"Because it wasn't," Karima said sourly. "Kaitlyn thinks it would be best for me to get out of there. She thinks it's, what did she say? 'Bad energy'? I don't remember. Some bull like that, though."

"It kind of is," Natalia said gently. "You're thirty-two, Kari. You're not getting any younger. You can't waste away over a man who just...wasn't the right one for you."

"Easy for you to say, Nat," Karima snapped. "You've got a husband, a job, and three kids. What do I have? A broken heart and even more broken home."

Natalia looked like she was reeling, but in typical Natalia fashion, she recovered quickly. "Yeah, I got lucky. You're right. You're... you're right. But you'll find someone, Kari. You've just got to give it time. And you have to accept that Winston is gone."

"But he's not!" Karima almost screeched. She slammed her palm down on the table, momentarily forgetting their location. But who cared, in the end? She lost the only man she'd ever loved so dearly. Who cared who stared? "He'll-he'll come back! He always does, Nat, you know he does. This isn't any different from any other time. He'll walk in through that door, and I'll push the damn move-out date back as far as I can! He'll come back, you... you...! Ugh!" Kari shoved her latte away from her and stuffed the coffee cake back into the brown Starbucks bag.

"Karima, please..."

"No, Nat. I get that you were trying to help and everything, but no thanks. It's not helping." Karima shoved the paper bag into her purse and shouldered it, considering leaving her coffee before agitatedly grabbing it and turning to leave. "I'll prove you wrong, Nat. You and Kaitlyn and mom and dad. All of you. You'll see. Winston will come back."

"He was screwing another woman, Kari. You shouldn't want him to come back."

"It was an honest mistake," Kari said, her voice cracking. "He was drunk. He wouldn't have done it otherwise."

"Man makes his most honest decisions when drunk," Natalia said, her voice oddly soft. Karima felt a pang of guilt. She'd known Natalia had bad experiences with drunk men. Her first husband had been a raging alcoholic and had beaten her frequently. Natalia's oldest daughter had been from her first marriage, and both Natalia and Yasmin feared that somehow the man who'd so utterly destroyed their confidence in humanity would show up again. Natalia was used to being abused and cheated on, all because of alcohol. And because of her experiences, she'd learned that "alcohol gave man the ability to act out his true character." It wasn't always pretty, but...

But Winston was different.

"Maybe in your case," Karima said, her voice softening. "And I'll never say that what happened to you and Yasmin-"

"Don't even mention it, Karima," Natalia said. Her typically comforting friend was gone, and in its place, a woman with a hard exterior and little emotion. That was the Natalia that her first husband had created. The hard-shelled woman who never cried.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Nat," Karima said, approaching from a slightly different angle. "I'm really, really sorry. What happened to... he was a bad man. But Winston isn't a bad man. He never... He made a few mistakes, yeah, but what man-what human-doesn't mistakes every now and again? I've got to go home. Just... just in case."

Karima turned and started walking away. The chair scraped against the floor as her friend stood.

"Fine, Kari. This is your battle to fight. If you're so determined to fight it alone, so be it."

D