A Pact For Life (5 page)

She had no animosity toward Cale, it was all self-hatred. She was angry she let him back in her life. Angry at how vulnerable she felt the previous night. Angry at how good Cale made her feel. Actually, that last thought did make her angry toward Cale, but it was the type of anger a smoker might feel toward RJ Reynolds.

Above all else, she was angry about agreeing to the pact. No sane adult would have agreed to that, and even the insane would've at least given it a bit more consideration. Regardless of the result of the pact, she would lose something important. Whether that be Cale, or her precious work time, loss was inevitable.

But... and this was a pretty big but, there was a way out of her predicament. It was a two-step solution that consisted of:

1. Canceling the pact.

2. Taking the morning after pill.

Canceling the pact was easy. As soon as Cale woke up, she would tell him the pact was a mistake and they should just forget it. However, Diana didn't have the same conviction when it came to the pill. She could never admit it to Cale, and hell, she couldn't even admit it to herself, but deep down inside, a part of her wished she was pregnant.

Back in the bedroom, Cale had achieved another feat that may have seemed insignificant to the sober. He was now at the point where he could keep his eyes open and think somewhat critically.

He thought about the pact. Or to be more specific, its creation. The way he saw it, the idea was given to him by God. It was similar to the way sculptures used to come. And this gave Cale hope.

There was this optimistic notion that God had not forgotten him. The idea for the pact was only the beginning. Sooner or later, his art, the truest love of his life, would return.

After an hour, his physical pain diminished enough that Cale decided it was time to take on the next challenge of his day – getting out of bed. With both feet on the ground, he gingerly stood up only to fall back down again from dizziness. But an upright position had been achieved, which like the cavemen before him, grew easier with practice. It might be a tad over dramatic to compare the first bipedal humans to a hung-over twenty-first century male, but the similarities were there.
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Step by painful step, Cale made his way to the living room, but Diana was too involved with her work to notice the sudden appearance of a naked man. She was in her own world filled with adultery and alimony, custody and child support. There was nothing that could stop her when she was in that kind of work groove. She was unflappable. A single-goal minded juggernaut that could not be phased by...

“Morning, darlin'.”

Something stopped the juggernaut.

Any aggravation she had about being interrupted disappeared into laughter at the sight of Cale. Naked, disheveled, bruised, cut, and a nose too crooked to be functional apparently was funnier than you would think.

Cale sat down on her couch and said, “I know what you are thinking, and yes, I am available.”

“You can't be serious. I would think with the bruises and dried blood, you would have to fight the girls off.” Diana joked.

The massive pile of papers on Diana's desk made Cale think she was in a personal hell, and like always, he felt he should save a girl in trouble. “Why don't you leave that stuff and come back to bed? You have all day for work.”

In her mind, Diana had a vision of the rest of her day if it continued on this current path. There would be more sex. And lunch. And more sex. And dinner. And drinks. And you can probably guess what would come after that.

Diana knew she would have a great day if she went back to bed, but she wasn't concerned about that day. It was the next day, week, and month that worried her. There would be a fight. Or something big at work. Or Cale disappearing completely. It was guaranteed that sooner or later, they would be right back where they started. She refused to let this happen, and at the same time, she needed to cancel the pact.

She got up from her desk, sat next to him on the couch, and said, “Cale, we need to talk. About last night...”

“I know, I've been thinking about it too.”

Surprised, Diana said, “Really?”

“Yeah, it might sound strange when I tell you this, but when the idea for the pact came to me, it was identical to the way sculptures used to come.”

“What?” Diana asked. This was not what she expected to hear.

Cale couldn't contain his grin. “It's been so many years since an idea like this came to me. It... feels good. I have a feeling something good is gonna come out of this pact, darlin'.”

As heartless as you think Diana may be, she couldn't tell Cale she wanted to cancel the pact. Ignoring the blood, bruises, and crooked nose, he looked alive. She grabbed his hand and warmly said, “You need to go see a doctor about your nose.”

“After we go back to bed?”

“No, you need to go now. I have work to finish.”

“Alright, if you insist.” Cale replied. He wasn't offended by Diana's brazenness. It was who she was, and he liked her for it. Before he left to get dressed, he asked, “Do you wanna go out sometime this week?”

Speaking toward the stack of papers on her desk, Diana said, “No, I'll be busy all week.”

“What about the results?”

Deep breath. “Give me two weeks, and I'll let you know. Now seriously, Cale. I need to finish this.”

Cale leaned in for a kiss, and was promptly rejected. Disappointed, he said, “So you don't want to see me even once until then?”

“No, I do not. We need to be rational about this. What if I'm not pregnant, and we get attached over the next couple of weeks? Do you want to say goodbye forever if we start dating again? It's better this way, trust me.”

Cale smiled and nodded. Diana could be as rational as she wanted, but he knew the truth. This was fate. In two weeks, Diana would see it was as well.

A TEST OF FAITH

The following Friday, Cale walked into a mostly empty bar on account for it being only noon. With the lack of people, females especially, in the bar at that moment, he had no problem spotting the person he was there to meet. At a table in the dimly lit corner was the blond who was the catalyst for the fight that resulted in his bandaged nose. She no longer looked distraught, but carefree. This wasn't a good thing, however. She had the look of carefree ignorance - like how a sorority girl might welcome a drink in a red cup offered by a stranger at a party.

“Cale Dawkins,” She said, standing up to hug him like they were lifelong friends.

“Hey there, beautiful,” Cale replied masking his inability to remember her name.

He didn't even know why he agreed to meet her, let alone in a bar at noon on a Friday. She kept calling, and he kept ignoring. That is, he ignored her up until the previous night, and yes, copious amounts of alcohol factored in his decision to answer the call.

It was that same alcohol that gave him one hell of a hangover, and made him regret agreeing to meet at a bar. The blond insisted on meeting him there for a true drink. It was sign #1 that Cale was headed for disaster.

The blond took a swig from her bottle of Bud Light and airily said, “Like, I have to come clean about something. After you left the bar last week, I heard some of the bartenders talk about you, and like, your art. So I Googled you and, like, I can't believe someone so famous hit on me.”

Though he rarely got the 'famous celebrity' title from people, hearing her talk about his former prestige made him desperately want to change the subject to anything else. In desperation, he turned to his primary method for distracting girls - heralded praise. “How could I not hit on you? Look at you, you're like something out of a Landseer painting.”

He knew she would never understand what he meant. Landseer only painted farm animals.

“Oh, thank you!”

Playing dumb, Cale said, “I'm just sorry I mistook your engagement ring for fashion.”

“Speaking of that, did you notice something different about me when you walked in?” The blond girl asked and held up her diamondless left hand.

In truth, he had noticed, but altogether didn't care. Faking surprise, he exclaimed, “Well look at that! So you ended things with him?”

While he was speaking, a waitress came over which made Cale grimace internally at having to drink while still hung-over from the previous night. Shifting toward the waitress, Cale said, “Well it's usually a rule of mine not to drink until the sun goes down, but what the hell, I'll live dangerously for once. Can I get a gin on the rocks with a bit of vermouth to give it some color?”

Neither the waitress nor the blond picked up on Cale's joke. They looked at each other with puzzled expressions until the waitress volunteered to set him straight. “You do know vermouth is clear, right?”

Cale was way too hung-over to come up with any sort of clever follow-up. Grasping for anything funny, he said, “By color, I meant my face. Compared to tan little missy here, I'm way too pale.”

The waitress gave a courteous laugh and left. Continuing his conversation with the blond, Cale said, “I'm sorry about your engagement, it must've been tough to put so much into a relationship, and come out with nothing.”

The blond took another drink from her Bud Light and said, “You know, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to, like, end things with Frank. I've never told anyone this, but I'm not sure I was ever in love with him. The only reason he proposed was because I kept bugging him about it. Most of my friends were either engaged or married, and like, I didn't want to be the last single one. But talking to you last week changed my mind about everything. It's strange to say this since we didn't talk that long before Frank and those guys jumped you, but when I left the bar that night, I realized how wrong it was to marry someone out of, like, fear of being alone. You know what I mean?”

Hearing this made Cale think about Diana and the pact. If she was pregnant, he didn't want her to marry him out of an obligation to him or the child, but rather because she wanted to. Hiding his dread, he asked casually, “I gotta ask, beautiful, do you regret getting engaged?”

“Absolutely, like, the biggest mistake of my life.”

Cale's drink arrived and her answer caused him to down most of it in one gulp. His face was scorching and his mind swirled, but the blond didn't notice his uneasiness. She opined,
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 “Why is it, like, women have such a fear to be the last single one while guys can embrace being eternal bachelors?”

Cale knew this statement was absolutely wrong. As far as he knew, Diana could care less about being the last single one amongst her friends. Plus, he had plenty of former male friends who hated being bachelors for even one second, let alone for all eternity. Not wanting to argue, Cale replied, “I guess that's just a matter of perspective.”

“Hah!” The blond shouted. “Perspective! That reminds me of something that happened back in college. You have to hear this, it's HEH-LAIR-EE-US.” The intricate breakdown of the word 'hilarious' was sign #2 of trouble. “I had a one night stand with this total asshole, and like, the condom broke. After I told him I wouldn't get the morning after pill, he started freaking out. I'm sorry, but that's a sin. So this asshole kept repeating his life would be over if I got pregnant. He even fucking asked if I had any STD's. It was like he was calling me a slut right to my face.”

Thanks to the gin, Cale's hangover had subsided, but the girl's story still hurt his head. “Hold up, you wouldn't get the pill because it's a sin, but one night stands are okay?”

“It kills life, Cale. Besides, I got even with that asshole. When my period came, I hung the bloody tampon on his doorknob. For the next three years, everyone called him 'On-the-rag' Brad!”

This was it for Cale. He had enough of this girl and her apparent insanity. Why did he continue trying to rescue girls who couldn't be rescued? His father had a hand in this personality trait for sure, but as far as Cale could tell, his father never had any problems rescuing women.

In an attempt to leave, he lied, “I'm sorry, I have to come clean. My ex-girlfriend just let me know she is pregnant, and I'm pretty sure we are gonna get married. I feel terrible for going behind her back to meet with you. This is all my fault, I should've told you sooner.”

The blond shouted, “What!? How dare you! I thought you were different, Cale, but you're just like all those other assholes.”

Her admonishment meant little as Cale was well ahead in the race to be disgusted with the other. He put some money down on the table and said, “Well I guess this is goodbye. Take care.”

“Wait,” the blond said making sure to finish her Bud Light before standing up to meet him. With an evil smile, she asked, “Before you go, do you want to, like, come to my car for a little bit? I'm up on the top floor of the parking garage next door, and like, my back seats fold down.”

“Wha...what,” Cale asked making sure he heard her correctly.