A Chance
Without thinking, Kathy took in a deep, slow breath and let out a heavy sigh. Her lips were pressed tightly together. They were acting as a blockade against the anger that was bubbling up inside her body. She blinked several times to replenish the moisture on the surface of her contacts before holding her eyes closed for a few moments. Once she regained her vision, she decisively moved the cursor on the computer screen to the top right corner and closed the browser that she had been starring at for the past twenty minutes.
She walked over to the far side of her bedroom and picked up her crushed leather purse. She pulled out her wallet and quickly found the calling card that she had bought from the gas station three days ago. She slid her thumb over the fresh, shiny surface of the card and then went back to the desk and sat down. She had been saving the minutes to call him over the weekend to hear about his upcoming trip to Tel Aviv, but there was no point in saving them now. She flipped open her metallic pink cell phone and carefully dialed the numbers to call long distance to Israel.
“Hello?” A man answered.
“Hi… it’s me. How are you?” Kathy asked in a serious tone.
“Hey babe, I’m great,” he answered endearingly, “I have been out at the beach all morning with Naama and Ezra. The sun is beautiful here. It’s so good to hear your voice! How are you?”
“That’s nice,” she answered, momentarily ignoring his question, “Seth, we need to talk about something…”
“What? Okay sure, go ahead.” He replied absently.
“I have been wanting… I have been trying to talk to you about us, I mean, our relationship recently…but it has been hard with the small amount of time that we get on the phone, and because you never get online, so I feel like there is never a good amount of time for us to talk. You know?” Kathy waited for a response.
Silence.
“Hello? Seth? Are you there?” Kathy asked as she stood up.
“Yeah, I’m here, sorry I was putting my shirt on. Go ahead.” Seth said.
“Oh, well. I was just saying that I was wishing that we had more time to talk, and…I was looking at your profile on Facebook today, and there is a tagged picture of you kissing a girl…and she’s not me Seth,” She hastily continued as she paced around the room, “I have been trying to talk to you about this for weeks, and you never seem to have any time for me, but you do seem to have time to kiss Israeli women on the beach, so I just wanted to let you know that it’s over and I’m done.”
“Kathy, it…she is…” Seth pleaded, but Kathy cut him off.
“Seth, I really don’t care anymore. I need some amount of decent communication and that obviously isn’t gonna happen while you’re in Israel, so, I’m done. I just wanted to let you know.” She told him without hesitation.
“Aw babe, please, just give me a chance to explain,” Seth pleaded.
“No,” Kathy stated forcefully, “I don’t…I really didn’t think you were going to do this to me. I have to go. Bye.” She snapped the cell phone shut before the words had finished leaving her mouth. She knew that her farewell had been cut off, but she did not care.
