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12th
December 2009
Maxine closes
a chapter
It’s
happened to everyone—that moment when
you find out your guy is a total jerk and you
rid yourself of him forever.
Ari’s first jerk moment was at 17, when
her then guy friend, Ali, who was perfectly
tall and strikingly attractive (albeit with
a bit of a tummy), insisted that since they’d
dated for seven months and counting, it was
time to be intimate.
Ari promptly showed him the door. At that age
she hadn’t even mastered the french kiss!
Her second jerk moment was at 21. Her third
at 24.
Maxine’s jerk moments came much more frequently,
however. Her latest was with her ex-musician
flame from the Turks, AC. Despite AC’s
pending nuptials, he insisted on a casual relationship
with Maxine—even though they no longer
lived in close proximity.
And what with her confusion between Corey and
Mr. Magic, Maxine had not the stomach for another
romance, especially with AC. They’d dated
then, both fully aware that they’d each
had steady relationships back home, but Maxine
had moved on and was not in a hurry to revisit
that period of her life.
Ari knew AC. He was the showy type. He loved
the limelight and would spare no pains to ensure
he stayed there, even at someone else’s
expense. So no matter how many times Maxine
turned him down, AC wouldn’t quit. He
had to know that he was still first in her life.
“Oh my God, Ari, it was a disaster,”
Maxine was speaking in hushed tones amidst the
electric hum of the air conditioning unit, the
clicking of keyboards and the incessant shrill
of telephones.
Ari glanced at her watch to check the time.
She had about an hour to spare before her latest
assignment was due. That was cutting it close,
but AC was always an interesting topic, especially
since Ari always had her doubts.
“Let’s hear it,” Ari said
leaning back in her swivel chair. She’d
just take a short break, recollect her thoughts.
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“Okay,
so you know how he’d been bugging me to
visit, to start up what we had. Lately I’d
been making it pretty clear to him that I wasn’t
interested anymore. You know before, how I’d
just drop everything to take his calls, I don’t
do that anymore.” Maxine was speaking
quickly but so quietly that Ari had to press
her ear to the receiver. She sat up and leaned
forward.
“Well, apparently he thought that I needed
convincing, so he got his friend on the line
to tell me how much he cares about me,”
Maxine scoffed. “Seriously, Ari, I was
over it. So I let him have it, over the phone,
with his friend listening.”
Maxine spilled every sordid little secret about
her and AC’s secret relationship, from
his incessant complaints about his fiancé,
to the point where he was begging her to call
it quits with her steady boyfriend to be with
him.
“He must have been so embarrassed,”
Ari gasped.
“He was actually. Anyway, I must have
really pissed him off, because he wrote me this
scathing letter about how I was never anything
more to him than just a friend.”
Typical. Ari thought. She’d met AC several
times and he was all over Maxine. Head over
heels, in fact.
“How do you feel about it, Maxy?”
Ari asked, aware that Maxine, no matter how
tough she pretended to be, really did love deeply.
“I’m okay really. I think I’d
begun to realize who he really was some time
ago. And now that I’ve met Mr. Magic,
I can compare them and really tell the difference
between what’s real and what’s not.”
Ari smiled. It was one of the few times that
Maxine had ever really stood up for herself.
“And you know what Ari, I know I did the
right thing,” Maxine said. “This
is one time I’m positive I did.”
Discuss
Story
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