~ Love Therapy ~
by
Fiona McGier
Suddenly the lights flashed and the music stopped for a moment, while the DJ announced that dinner was going to be served soon, and everyone needed to find a place to sit. Miguel excused himself and went in search of the olive green silky dress, with the hottest woman he had ever known, inside of it.
He found her easily because she waved at him from a table across the room. He greeted and chatted briefly with quite a few other people, as he made his way over to the table that she was standing next to. When he finally got there she sat down, and he sat in the chair next to her. Their legs brushed together as he sat down, and he was grateful for the draping tablecloth that hid his instinctive reaction to that brief touch.
He looked around and was pleasantly surprised to see that she had chosen a table with some of the people they had sat with at their Prom dinner. They had enjoyed each others’ company then, and they did so this time around also. Dinner passed quickly as they discussed current events, what each now did for a living, how many kids they had, and how many of them were dealing with the issues of raising their own kids, some of whom were now at the age to attend their own proms.
Finally, over dessert, someone asked Miguel if he had ever married. Since he and Alicia were the only two single people there, naturally everyone wanted to know why. He laughed and said that he was working hard on his Prince Charming act, but had not yet met the princess that he was meant to rescue. They all laughed, then asked Alicia the same thing.
She looked quickly at Miguel. Taking a deep breath, she answered, “Yes.”
She added quickly, “But I’m divorced.”
Miguel tried to look nonchalant as he took in the shock of realizing that she had married someone else. He knew rationally, of course, that she would have had other lovers, since they had not been together for twenty years, and he himself had lost count of how many he had had. Never-the-less he was upset beyond belief to think that she had been able to overcome her aversion to marriage, but with another man. Not with him, but with someone else!
Soon after that the music got louder, and everyone began to get up to dance. Miguel excused himself and went out for another cigarette. He stayed out there, sipping the two drinks he had brought out with him, both of them doubles, and smoking. He chatted briefly with other smokers, but remained out there when they headed back in to dance and socialize.
Inevitably, at last, Alicia came out looking for him.
“Hey, Miguel, aren’t you going to do any dancing?”
She strode over to where he was sitting on the balcony wall.
He shook his head, “Nah.”
“Why not?” she persisted.
“Just not in the mood tonight,” he answered her.
She smiled at him and covered the hand resting on the balcony with one of hers.
“I was hoping to get you up to do some salsa dancing with me. Those other guys don’t know what they are doing on a dance floor! Not like you do!”
He looked at her sharply.
“No!” He spoke loudly, “Not this time you don’t.”
She gave him a worried look.
“I don’t what?”
“You think you can push me away, and walk away from me, and I will always be waiting for you to come back? Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?”
Her lower lip trembled, and it took all of his strength of will not to grab her and kiss those luscious, full lips.
“I don’t know what you mean, Miguel. I just wanted to dance with you.”
“Why don’t you go dance with your ex-husband?”
He knew it sounded petty and jealous the minute it left his lips, but he was just drunk enough not to care. And the hurt look on her face let him know that it had worked.
“I’m…um…I’m sorry you feel that way,” she stammered. “I was so happy to see you here, looking so good and all…”
She turned away, to look out at the pond behind the hall. There was an awkward silence.
After a few moments, she spoke quietly, with a slight tremor in her voice, “It’s been such a long time for us, Miguel. I was hoping that you would have forgiven me by now.”
He took a deep breath, hoping she didn’t notice how shaky it was.
“Some things you don’t get over.”
She looked back at him and there was infinite sadness in her eyes.
“I know…” she said softly. “So I guess there’s no chance that you might want to see me again, after tonight then?”
He shook his head.
She sighed deeply. She turned to head back toward the dimly-lit hall, with the loud music spilling out of the door each time it was opened. She stopped at the door. She spoke again without turning her head to look at him, speaking so quietly that he had to strain to hear her.
“Goodbye, Miguel. It was good to see you again.”
She quickly walked through the door and away from him, and he watched as she disappeared into the crowd.
Then he said out loud to himself, “I finally got to be the one to tell her ‘No’.”
He shook his head.
“So why doesn’t it feel good? Why do I feel like such an asshole?”
Angrily he drained his drink then threw his glass at the wall under the balcony. He enjoyed the sound of it shattering as a thought flashed through his head, “Just like my heart.”
He got up and strode back into the hall to get another drink.
Much later, when the lights were once again turned on brightly, the music stopped while the DJ announced that the party was over. He cordially invited them all to come back for the next reunion, in another ten years. Miguel half-heartedly looked around the hall for the olive-colored silk dress, but he knew that she was gone.
He somehow managed to drive himself home. He passed out fully dressed on his bed once he made it into his bedroom. And when he awoke in the morning with a major hang-over headache, and saw the grey skies with a steady rain drizzling down, he thought how appropriate it was that even the weather was depressed.