Chapter 27
Jonathan
My life had fallen apart and I couldn’t catch a break: First, Claire broke up with me—out of nowhere, and begged me to leave her alone, forcing me to take a two week vacation to Los Cabos so I wouldn’t run after her.
Then, as soon as I returned to the states, as soon as I walked into the HR department and started to help them with their restructuring plan, I learned that she’d put in a two weeks’ notice.
I thought about showing up to her farewell party—backing her into a corner and forcing her to admit that she wasn’t serious about leaving me, but I stayed in my office instead.
As the weeks passed, I thought she would call or text me—to at least say “Congratulations on the IPO being official,” or “I’m still willing to be your date to the ball” but she didn’t. She didn’t say anything, and I showed up to my IPO ball as the only executive without a date on his arm.
“John? Man, are you there?” Corey cleared his throat. “Hello? Hello!”
“Yes?”
“I have the pictures from last week.” He slid them across my desk. “How much longer do you need me to do this?”
“Until I figure out what the f*ck happened...” I opened the folder and thumbed through the photos: Claire was shopping, having drinks with Sandra and Helen, cheering on the twins at their cheerleading competitions, and sitting on the beach with my charm necklace around her neck—staring off into the distance.
“She’s cruising down to Florida next week. She and her friends are taking a short ride to the Virgin Islands and then they’ll be flying back.”
What? “She’s getting on a plane?”
“There’s a ticket in her name so I assume that’s what’s going to happen...”
“When was the ticket purchased?”
“Last Friday. She, Helen, and Sandra went to the airport to get them instead of buying them online for some strange reason. That reminds me, she’s been going to some type of phobia therapy at a private clinic every Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve verified that the sessions are three hours long and they’re one-on-one, but there’s doctor-patient privacy so I can’t tell you exactly what it’s for.” I know what it’s for... “Thank you very much, Corey. I’ll um...I won’t need you to do this for too much longer.”
“Take all the time you need.” He gave me a half smile. “It’s not a hassle at all.” He patted my shoulder and walked out of my office.
I still couldn’t figure out how the hell me and Claire went from making love one night to breaking up the next day. It didn’t make any sense, and I’d tried to think of every hypothetical scenario possible: She’d met someone else her age or older, someone had said something to her—making her feel bad about our relationship, or she woke up and decided that she really didn’t want me anymore.
Yet, none of those scenarios added up: From the pictures, her life was the same—I just wasn’t in it anymore. She’d never mentioned anyone saying anything to her and I’d checked her phone records over and over. There were a few stray numbers here or there, but the conversations were always a minute or less so I figured they were probably quick conversations with her associates. And that last scenario, the most hurtful one, didn’t make much sense either—not when she’d almost said “I love you too” right after I said “I love you” the night before we broke up.
I tossed the pictures into the trash and called the IT department. “Could you please send me those phone records again? Could you expand the field from one month ago to three months ago please?
Yes...That’d be fine...Yes, that would be the week of my birthday...Thank you very much.”