Waltzing Out of Her Life

Adrienne didn’t know what to do. She sat in silence, with her phone pressed against her ear, while the man who told her just last week that he loved her, was now telling her he was leaving her for someone else.

“I’m really sorry,” Michael said. “I haven’t been honest with you, but, for the past three months, I have been seeing one of my students at the dance studio. I know I’m not supposed to date my students, that is against policy, but I’m going to fix that. I’ve already turned in my resignation at the dance studio, and that way, Gail and I can be together, openly, the way I want it to be.”

Adrienne could not believe her ears. Michael couldn’t date one of his students because it was against studio policy. What about he couldn’t date any of his students because he was supposed to be engaged to her?

“I’ll be home later tonight to get some of my clothes,” Michael said. “I’ll be staying with Gail. We can talk about this more when I get there.”

“Talk?” The word Adrienne spoke stuck in her throat. Her relationship with him flashed before her eyes, the way people’s lives flash before their eyes as they are dying. In an instant, she remembered the day she met Michael at the carnival, their first date, first kiss, first time they made love in a shower, on the kitchen floor, in a cemetery. She remembered the flowers he sent her at work after they had a fight the night before, how they had danced the night away at her high school class reunion (how proud she was that night…the former plain Jane bookworm who seldom dated as a teenager, now with the best-looking man in the place, who could dance like nobody’s business), the way he spoon-fed her desserts in fancy restaurants.

Then there were the mysterious, late-night phone calls that Michael always took in another room. Whenever Adrienne would ask him about the calls, he was so nonchalant about it, like it didn’t bother him that Adrienne was so upset. In fact, lately nothing Adrienne said to him seemed to matter anymore. He was tuning her out, and spending less time at home.

So this is what it was all about. And he thought just by talking about it that Adrienne would understand.

“Talk?” Adrienne stammered again, wanting to throw her phone at the wall, but also wanting to hold on to her man the way she was holding on to her phone.

“Well, yeah,” Michael responded. “I think it’s a good idea to put the cards out on the table.” He sounded so sure of himself, so comfortable. He wanted to plan the end of a relationship the way he would plan a vacation. Well, he was going on a vacation, a one-way trip to Gail, the new, exciting bitch in his life.

Adrienne was numb. The only thing she was sure of was that she was not sure whether to let him go or fight for him. She was not sure if she should be love and cooperative and understanding, or bitchy and conniving and spiteful. She had a splitting headache all of a sudden, and she could not believe any of this was real. She tried to picture telling herself telling her friends and family, and no words could come to her to explain why Michael had left her.

But she was not going to deal with him tonight. She could not deal with him. She was not ready. Some other time. She had some planning of her own to do.

“Don’t bother coming back,” she managed to say. As soon as she said it, she felt a small twinge of power, and she knew that even though Michael had already decided to leave, she would decide on her own when she would deal with him again. “I’ll talk to you when I’m ready.” She immediately hung up, and in slow motion, sank into the recliner. No tears would come, and in a state of depression and mental exhaustion, Adrienne fell asleep.