Break Up

When Hath got to work, she was surprised to find her desk phone ringing.

“Hey there,” she said softly. “What are you doing up so early, Rich? Jon got off alright, said to tell you -- ”

“Look, I don’t care what he told you to tell me,” Richie answered, his voice mean and hard.

“Huh?”

“Your behavior with Jon last night was totally unacceptable. If it’s him you really want, you should have said so, instead of leading me on. In case you didn’t realize, he’s totally smitten with T, so your efforts were wasted anyway.”

“Wait, what? What the hell are you talking about? I don’t ‘want’ him – I never have. It was just harmless flirting, and for God’s sake, we weren't even in the same damned room!”

“Do you whore around with all your men friends? You do seem to have an awful lot of them.”

“Rich! How dare you!”

Jen heard him sigh on the other end of the phone. “I don’t want to hear it. I know what I know, and I know what Jon told me. I have some stuff to do, I need to go. I just wanted to tell you that if you want Jon, I won’t stand in your way, though T may kick your ass. I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up with out saying goodbye.

Jennifer stared at her phone, not quite sure what had happened. She quickly pressed ‘redial’ and waited. And waited. And finally, it rang through to voicemail. This is Rich. Talk, baby.

“Rich, I don’t know what the hell that was all about,” Jennifer said, “but I sure as shit didn’t deserve to be hung up on or called a whore. You have one hell of a nerve. Don’t call me back.”

By the end of the day, she had ignored several phone calls, emails, and texts from him, deleting them without looking or listening to them. When she got home, she checked in on the board out of habit, and checked her PMs. There was one from Richie. She was tempted to ignore it, but in the end couldn’t help herself.

Jen, I'm sorry for what I said, and for hanging up on you this morning. I don't blame you for not answering your phone or email, but I hope you see this. I was being stupid, I know, but Jon knows how to push my buttons. I know that whatever was going on was just on the computer and didn't mean anything AND I know that his fiancée would have his ass in a sling if he ever seriously THOUGHT about getting hot and heavy with another woman -- even one as lovely as you. It's just that he called me this morning to brag on how good you looked all rumpled from sleep and he described your bathroom and robe and hell, I know.....I KNOW that you don't think of him that way...it's just...

No more excuses. I was dumb, and wrong, and I'm sorry. Please, call me later, OK? I love you.

~ R

“Oh no you don’t,” Jennifer said to the screen. “You can be a hurtful, jealous fool, call me a whore and hang up on me, then think this makes everything right? I don’t think so.”

She took a deep breath, and hit reply.

First off, I’m only answering this so you’ll leave me alone. Stop calling me. I don’t know how you could think I'd [a] take any of that shit with Jon seriously and [b] be the kind of girl to "love the one you're with." I NEVER gave you any reason to think that about me. Never.

Second, jealous fool or not, this whole mess means on some level you actually believe I would have, or would have WANTED to, mess around with Jon. You’re screwed up in the head, Rich. Completely. What in the hell kind of woman do you think I am? Your apology doesn’t mean anything. You can’t just make this go away with a few pretty words.

I swore I would never let another man make me feel like absolute shit....and look what's happened.

I gave you the power to made me feel horrible about myself and I swore I'd never let a man do that to me again. Well guess what? I’m taking back that power. I loved you more than any other man I've ever known. I trusted you with my body, mind, and soul. And look how I was treated.

I will not allow you to shatter me like ex-ass did. It took a long time to get back to normal, and I will NOT go through that again. Not even for you.

I'm leaving the cell phone home and going to NYC tomorrow. Please honor my wishes and leave me alone. I need a clean break. In this, I deserve to get what I want. You owe me that much.

I can’t say it’s all been fun, but it mostly has. I truly loved you, Rich.

Damn you for that.

Saturday, Richie tried all day to reach Jennifer, redoubling his efforts after he read her message to him. A thousand times over. She wasn't answering any of her phones, and he couldn't even leave any more messages because her voicemail was full. Pacing in his living room, he felt awful that he’d said those terrible things to Jen and hurt her; he didn't know how to make it better.

Yes, he did. He had to go see her and say to her face that he was sorry and didn't mean to say those horrible things to her and make her think he didn't trust her.

When he couldn’t get through to her, he resorted to trying her friends. Krissy hadn’t seen her, and he got Willow’s voicemail. He'd tried calling her mother, but Ma didn't know anything about Thursday, and didn't know where Jen had gone.

Saturday night, he finally reached Stephanie, and surprised the hell out of her.

"Stephanie," he'd said, "it's Rich."

"Hello," Stephanie said cautiously.

"Uh, I can't seem to find Jennifer," he said, "and I really need to talk to her."

"Well, Cheryl and I met her in the city today," she said, "but she should be home by now. She said she was going to take a pill and go to bed." Stephanie was quiet for a minute. "She's really sad."

Rich sighed. "I know and it's my fault. I need to apologize but I can't get to her."

"She's probably sleeping now, but she’ll be at the game tomorrow," she said. "Looks like you're out of luck until later. She should be home after 6."

"OK," Richie said. "I'm coming out there. To Boston. If she talks to you, don't tell her, ok? I don't want her running away from me."

Stephanie was quiet. "OK, but you'd better fix this. She loves you something fierce."

"I love her, too," Richie said. "I'll fix it."

Sunday he flew into Boston. He'd called in a couple of favors, and arranged for a helicopter to fly him from the airport to the stadium. He got there around the start of the third quarter and went to the controls room. He had a plan.

Halfway through the third quarter, Jennifer's brother nudged her. "Look at the board," he said.

Jennifer looked. For a donation to the Patriot's Charitable Foundation, you could have a message displayed on the big board. Everyone always read them and oohed and aahed over birthday greetings, anniversary notices, and marriage proposals.

"HELLO TO JENNIFER IN SEC 315 ROW 11" it said.

Jen smiled and looked at her brother. "What did you do?" She asked.

"It wasn't me - what the fuck?" John answered. Jennifer just shrugged.

"I'M SORRY I HURT YOU; I LOVE YOU, BABY" the next flash said.

Jennifer's face went pale despite the blazing sun. "Oh shit," she whispered.

"CAN YOU FORGIVE ME FOR BEING A JERK?"

"Awwww," the crowd responded.

"PLEASE? I WANT TO MAKE IT UP TO YOU."

By now, of course, Jennifer knew who these were from. The people in her section were chanting "Say yes!" Over and over, making her eyes tear up.

As she wiped the moisture from her eyes, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Jen..." An all-too familiar voice spoke into her ear. She turned and there was Richie, looking as miserable as she felt.

"I'm so fucking sorry," he said to her. "I never meant to hurt you, to make you think I didn't trust you. I love you. And I know you still love me. I never should have doubted you. Can you ever forgive me?"

John nudged her again. "Look up at the screen." She did and saw herself up there with Richie. The crowd, when they saw who it was, started to point and cheer. The control room guy super-imposed the words "Jen" and "Jerk" over their pictures, making her and the 20,000 people who were paying attention to the board laugh. She smiled sadly at Rich.

"I do still love you," she said, “though Lord only knows why. You hurt me, Rich. And while this is a nice gesture, it’s not going to be that easy. I don’t know that I can trust you not to hurt me like that again." There was cold steel and a sheen of tears in her eyes.

"Baby if I ever do this to you again, I think you'll have to get in line to kill me."

The crowd around them started chanting "KISS HER! KISS HER!"

Jen locked eyes with Richie and shook her head imperceptively. "Don’t,” she mouthed.

Richie settled for pulling her in for a hug. When she stiffened against him and tried to push him away, he relented. “God, Jen, " Richie said. "Can you ever forgive me?"

Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t just now, I’m still too hurt, but maybe.” She pressed her lips together in a mockery of a smile and turned back to the game.