Page 57 of Right Number

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“I’m so glad you called! I’ve been trying to reach you for hours. I didn’t hear back from you after I missed my flight…”

“I took a nap and then I had to get ready for the Spring Art Show.” I’d completely interrupted Mason but didn’t care. The whole phone call had me on edge. “I’ve had my phone off since I got here. Honestly, Mason, I wasn’t in a really good headspace to talk when I got your text messages about the missed flight.” I was trying to keep my tone neutral, but even I could tell I was failing miserably. My hands were shaking as I shifted back and forth from one foot to the other. Once again, the thought of just hanging up flitted through my mind.

“I’m so sorry, Anna. I screwed up. Please tell me I didn’t ruin this whole thing with us for good. Give me another chance, Anna. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t tell me I ruined this!” Mason’s voice sounded desperate but it still didn’t change the fact I was standing outside the Spring Art Show in my damn pink dress…alone. I looked up at the starless sky and tried to stop the tears from falling. Fuck, I’d cried, or felt like crying, more in the past few hours than I had in the past few years combined. That couldn’t be a good sign. “Anna…” Mason pleaded through the phone.

“Mason, I don’t think this is going to work,” I said quickly. I was unsure where the words were coming from, but there seemed to be more. “I think today makes it painfully clear this is going to be much harder than we thought.”

“It was me! I screwed up! This isn’t what it’ll be like all the time! Anna, please don’t do this!” He sounded hurt and the tone of his voice almost made me waver, but then I remembered how hurt I’d been earlier in the day…and how hurt I still was.

“Mason,” I said so calmly I surprised myself. “All the reasons I was so scared to make this leap came true today. I don’t think I can just keep blindly jumping and hope it works out.”

“Fuck! Anna! Please! You don’t mean that! I can be on a plane tomorrow…”

I don’t know why, but that statement was the one to send me over the edge. “I needed you here tonight, Mason!” I shouted into the phone. “I was counting on you being here with me! It may not seem like it, but tonight was a really big fucking deal! I’ve worked my entire college career for tonight, and I wanted to share it with you because that’s what people in relationships do! There will never be another tonight, Mason! It’s gone! Done!” I gasped in a deep breath and realized I was crying as I continued to yell. I was so hurt, angry, and confused about where things stood with Mason.

It was silent for a few moments before Mason’s shaky voice came through the phone line. “Anna, I’m so sorry. Please tell me how to fix this. I…”

“Mason! There you are, sweetie!” I froze as the unmistakable sound of a female’s voice came through the phone line. A female who clearly knew Mason well enough to call him “sweetie” and be looking for him. “I’ve been looking for your hot ass for a while! Come back inside, hon.” The woman started giggling and I could feel my breath catch in my throat.

I could hear a rustling noise and then Mason say, “Seriously? Not now! Go away!”

“But Mason,” the female voice whined. “I’m lonely in there without you. Come back in and I’ll buy you another drink.”

It was like watching a train wreck take place right in front of me. Every part of my brain was screaming to hang up the phone, but I couldn’t stop listening to the conversation on the other end. The pieces all clicked into place and it became painfully clear what was going on. Mason was out at a bar with another woman. I’d been too upset at first to catch it, but when I thought about it, I’d realized his speech was a little slow and slurred as if he had been drinking.

“Mason!” I shrieked as it all dawned on me.

“Now’s not a good time!” Mason shouted and it felt like someone punched me in the stomach.

“It’s not a good time?” I sobbed into the phone. “Well, I’m sorry for interrupting whatever you have going on tonight, Mason. Good night and goodbye.”

I started to pull the phone away from my ear to hang up, when I heard Mason shout, “No! Not you, Anna! Fuck! Don’t go, please! Just give me a minute!” Against my better judgment, I put the phone back to my ear just in time to hear him say, “Get out of here!”

“But Mason…” the female voice whined. I could totally imagine the woman behind the voice sticking her bottom lip out in a pout. She might’ve even been the kind to throw in a foot stomp.

“Go!” Mason shouted so loudly I had to move the phone away from my ear.

“Fine,” the woman said. “I’ll just wait for you inside, cutie. I’ll be at our table.”

“Anna?” Mason said, sounding a bit panicked.

“Real classy, Mason. Who is she?” I shot back.

“It is not like that. Let me explain…”

Memories of the night I walked in on Oliver screwing someone else flashed through my mind. They were quickly followed by memories of the days, weeks, and months after that night where he kept saying he “could explain.” I wasn’t going to relive that whole experience. “No, Mason!” I shouted. “I don’t think there is anything to explain. You didn’t leave when you were supposed to and you missed the damn plane! Now you’re drunk and cozying up with some chick at a bar when you said you’d be here with me!”

“Anna…”

“Please don’t, Mason. I feel stupid enough already. I really thought today was going to be the beginning of something great.” I let out a sound somewhere between a crazy laugh and a sob. “God, I was so stupid. I fell for all your bullshit, Mason. I really thought you were coming here. I thought this mattered to you. I thought I mattered to you.”

“Anna, please.” Mason almost sounded like he was crying, but it could have just been my own sobs I was hearing. “You have it all wrong. It is not like that. Let me explain…”

“Goodbye, Mason. Go back to the girl waiting for you inside,” I said bitterly.

“Don’t hang up, Anna!”

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