Back to Health: Slow Recovery

Lesson 3: Jealous Now

~The Next Day

Lynnette entered Michael's study carrying his plated lunch and water bottle. She heard him laughing from his belly as he sat behind his desk with his feet propped up. He wore his pajama pants and black loafers, his usual attire for a Saturday morning. He rested most of the day. Usually, he stayed on the phone with people he'd lost touch with through the week. He had a million friends, Lynnette would hear tell of a new one each week, and she was sure this was one of those times as she overheard the conversation.

"When are you coming to see me, baby?" Michael purred into his cellphone as he flipped a pen across his knuckles. Lynnette carefully sat down his lunch, and he acknowledged her with a glance, turning in his chair strangely. She found it odd that she was being shielded from a conversation, and she listened further as she readied his depression meds.

"No- no, you come see me. This week, I'm being held hostage at my own birthday party. You should come... Yes, you can stay."

Lynnette found that reply curious, and she stopped her eyes from glancing over her shoulder to blatantly listen. She knew the tone in his voice when he spoke to women. Attractive women that he was attracted to. His voice lowered, and he was heavy on pet names. That charming, sultry voice that made him an etheral daydream. 

This was a woman on the phone.

She brought his small medicine cup to his desk, setting it down beside his water. She looked over, watching his face blush deeply red as he listened to her reply, and Lynnette smiled and asked with her voice hushed politely,
"Who is that?"

Michael did have girlfriends. Women he would meet working or women from his illustrious past. It came as a surprise to no one. His bedroom needed its own turnstile and toll booth. Lynnette felt herself curl up viscerally inside the first time she walked into his bedroom for morning meds, and there lied a strange woman across his bed stark naked. From that point on, she demanded a courtesy text at the bare minimum to be alerted of company.

Michael looked irritatedly in her direction after her question, his nose crinkled in that frustrated way, making his entire face grimace, and she held up her hands slowly in defeat. She hated that look. She never deserved that look when he stuck her with it either. She spun around beginning to make her leave, and he growled under his breath with the iPhone's mic turned to the side,
"I am on the phone with my woman!"

"Which one?!" She spat back with a nasty tone, and Michael hung up with his face frozen in shock to how cold she sounded. He stood up, almost flailing to cross the floor over to her. She stood over her chart, clicking her pen anxiously for the confrontation about to begin.

"What the fuck was that all about?"

"What was what all-"

"Lynne, cut this stupid shit short. I am not in the mood!"

"In the mood for what?" She asked defensively standing her ground as he got closer, "Me asking you who you're on the phone with? Jesus!"

She stormed away as Michael held the bridge of his nose tensively. She felt her lips quivering in anger as her feet thundered against the tile to move into the hallway. She was two feet down the stairs,  cursing him under her breath until she was stopped by his fierce, lower voice calling out from the doorway,
"Lynnette!"

She turned with daggers in her eyes and he snapped his fingers to point down viciously infront of him, gesturing her return immediately. He crossed his arms and she returned reluctantly with her eyes centered into the ground, her shoulders hung low in angst.

He never dismissed her or spoke to her so rudely. Then again, in the last few months, they had never been so close. She slept at his bedside when he was in the hospital, tending to his every need and they were seeing each other at their lowest. There was no more friendly banter, their discussions were free of bullshit and the feelings between each other were raw. There was no more rosey veils, they were seeing each other's true colors.