Morning all and happy Friday to you. I hope you have had an absolutely splendid week. It is time to face the last prompt of the week, are you ready? Excellent, Then timers set and off we go.
I like this. It sets up a nice revenge by success story, which is sort of the opposite of yesterday. I wonder if I can blend the two…something to consider. Parallel revenge. Things to think about.
Friday, July 11th: His cheeks turned crimson.
His cheeks turned crimson. How could he have been so stupid. He saw her laughing and dancing with Gregory which was bad enough as she said she hadn’t seen or talked to her ex in at least six months. Worse was when Gregory spotted him. He smiled, Pointed him out not only to Camille but to their entire group of friends. They all turned in his direction. Even from across the street he could hear their laughter spilling out of the open windows and slicing his ear drums across the street.
His cheeks burning, he turned away and continued home. The reusable shopping bag was heavy against his hand. It contained all of the ingredients for a celebratory dinner, including the champagne. He picked out every element especially, picking the best, wanting it to be as memorable as his announcement.
He wouldn’t be sharing the announcement with Camille now. His joy deflated and the bag felt filled with weights. He made it back to his apartment. He didn’t really remember the walk. His embarrassment faded and he supposed that anger should come following, but it didn’t. He simply felt hollow.
He unlocked his door and stepped inside. He put the shopping bag into the fridge, not bothering to take anything out of the bag. He then moved to the hall closet. There was a box there, it was filled with odds and ends he had no other place to put but wasn’t quite ready to get rid of. It was like an extended junk drawer. He turned it upside down, spilling the contents on the floor of the closet.
Empty box in hand he moved through the apartment, collecting all of the items that belonged to Camille. He didn’t toss them into the box, he placed them gently. He was empty inside and thought this was a task better done before emptions rose. He scoured each room, opened each closet and every drawer. Anything that could remotely be called Camille’s went into the box. It filled, items mounding over the top. When it was done, he placed it beside the door.
For a moment he felt lost without a task in front of him. The phone rang and he slipped it out of his pocket. It was Camille. He didn’t want to talk to her on the phone. He rejected the call and moved to the couch. He sank slowly onto it. He set the phone on the coffee table in front of him. It rang again. He again rejected the call. He knew Camille would try a third time and when he rejected it, she would come over.
‘No emotions until she’s gone,’ he told himself. He didn’t know what emotion would appear on his face but he wanted to be neither tear stained nor enraged when she arrived. He let thoughts of Camille simmer as he concentrated on his announcement. The contract was secured. The biggest one his fledgling company had ever managed. It meant a great deal to him and to the future of his company. It meant that they were no longer just a start up. They were solid and on their way to becoming more.
It was cause for celebration and he hoped to have that celebration with Camille.
“I’ll have it on my own,” he decided. “It is my accomplishment.”
The phone rang again and for the third time he rejected it. She would come in person soon. He thought about opening the champagne and sipping it when she arrived but decided that it would call for too much explanation and he did not want to explain anything.
Ten til Midnight 