“Hallucinations don’t drive,” she said.
“I wasn’t planning on it. I was just gonna sit and talk.”
She laughed. This is absurd, she thought. And now, she wondered if she were actually dreaming, having passed out at the table inside the bar, maybe under it.
“Okay, George, here’s the deal,” she said, still chuckling. “It’s been on and off, off and on. She wants me, she leaves me. I almost die, she almost dies. I save her life, she blames me, and…” At this Callie stopped laughing and grew sullen. “She cheats on me, she comes running back. She cheats again, and I think, what the hell? I need to take care of myself first. So I cut the couples counseling short and ask her to leave.”
“Taking care of yourself is a good first step,” George said.
“Really? Then why do I feel like crap?”
“Because you love her.”
“Yes, I love her,” Callie said.
“Then go back to her,” he said. “Take her back, make it work.”
Callie smirked. He’d always been such a simpleton, oblivious to the subtly of relationships.
“If only it were that easy.” She opened the car door and nearly fell out of the cab. “Bye, George. Go haunt someone else, why don’t you.”
She started down the sidewalk. Street lights lit her way every few feet and the pavement glistened with rain. She glanced around, determined to find another cab. But as she looked up the road and back the other way, she noticed the street seemed abandon. On top of that, the sound of the usually-busy Seattle downtown was oddly quiet.
“Must be later than I thought,” she said out loud and fumbled to check the time on her cell. But in her stupor, she dropped the phone right into a gutter which ran with rain water. Before she could do anything, the current whisked her phone into a drain and out of site.
“Ah damn!”
She dropped to her knees, but it was too late. Her phone was gone.
She was still on her hands and knees when she heard him speak.
“I have always appreciated that view of your derriere.”
She stood up, spun around, and nearly fell into the gutter herself.
“Mark, really?” She ran her hands through her hair and shook her head with frustration. “I really need to stop drinking so much.”
She began walking again, swerving and stumbling. Mark walked alongside her.
“Are you following me?” she asked.
“Thought you’d want the company,” he said.
“Let me guess, you’ve got some insight on what to do with Arizona, right? You and all your experience with women.”
“Well, I’ve got a hell of a lot more experience than O’Malley ever did,” he said.
“Refining my sexual technique isn’t going to help me solve my problems with Arizona,” she said.
“Wouldn’t hurt.”
She stopped and scowled at him. “She didn’t sleep with Boswell because I couldn’t fulfill her in bed. She slept with her to punish me for cutting off her goddamn leg!” Callie shouted.
“Trust me,” he said. “I know all about women using and withholding sex in various ways to punish and manipulate. But see, this is where you need to be better than anyone else. Sex is primal. It’s the sure path to getting her back. You need to be so good, she craves you.”
Callie chuckled. “Craves me? Right. That’s what I need.”
