Love and the Perfect Solution|Valentine's Day

    Author: Ey Wade Genre:
    Rating

    In honor of Valentine's day character's from The Perfect Solution are sharing  their views on love.
    Sometimes you can share the same story, and have different views.... Austin & Catrine are asked 'why did your relationship end?"


    AUSTIN-- Sits in the chair, elbows resting on his knees.
    Well this is what I remember....

    On that  night, Catrine called me and invited him over for what she called a 'last get together'. She said she wanted to end the relationship on good terms and so I had gone. The candlelight meal had been delicious as was our 'get together'. I had been lying next to her with my eyes closed, enjoying the fragrance of her perfume, wishing we didn't really have to break-up, and basking in her closeness and the way she was slowly caressing my chest when her words abruptly scattered the mist of self-satisfaction clouding my brain. I remember as if it were yesterday.

         "Austin, don't you think it would be nice if we could be like this every night?" she asked softly.

         "Oh, Damn!" 

    "I remember jumping from the bed, grabbing my clothes from the floor and virtually running from the room. Standing in front of the sofa in the living room, I made two futile attempts at pulling on my pants before succeeding. I remember how Catrine looked when she entered into the living room from the bedroom. She had been securing the belt on her robe and as she tossed back her beautiful shoulder length hair with one hand, her small breast had swelled against the silk of the robe, practically begging for my touch. Giving in to the enticement, I stepped towards her and stopped short at the fury bursting from her lips.

         "What the hell is wrong with you, Austin?" 

    "She'd put her hand on her hips and removed them just as quickly when the lapel of the robe gaped open to expose her nakedness. Closing the gap, she pulled the belt tighter and I smiled at her belated sense of modesty and pulled on my shirt before answering."

         "I'm not the one with a problem."

         "Well, it sure as hell isn't me."  
    Austin pauses in his narrative to drag his hand through his hair.  "Her voice rose as did the anger in her face and I knew the argument was about to start and I wasn't disappointed.

    "I'm not the one that jumped out of bed and ran out of the room. You act like I'm trying to take away your freedom. Like you think I'm going to chain you to a wall or something!"  

         "Or 'something' is right. You want to tie me to you."

    Austin looks towards the interviewer."All I could do was pace the living room angrily and when I got near the sofa, I picked up a small pillow and threw it against the furthest wall in frustration and question her motives."

         "What in God's name do you want from me?" I asked her. "You know I work constantly."

         "Damn it!" 

    "Catrine had picked up the pillow and took her time replacing it on the sofa. I watched her as she bent and plumped up the pillow. The delightful shape of her bottom embossed on the silk of the gown made my mind wonder in other directions. It was a wasted trip."

    Austin pauses and smiles before continuing .

    "I remember how Catrine had turned and saw the look on my face and had stiffened, and looked me over with a slight sneer from feet to head. She stood in front of me as if she believed she could knock me down to her size and then had the nerve to blatantly prod me in my chest in her anger before continuing the argument. She had a lot to say or should I say we had a lot to say...."

         "Austin I want you to be faithful to me and if you can't be faithful at least be honest."
         "I am honest with you. Is it my fault you think so much of me that you believe every woman that sees me, wants me?"

    Catrine scoffed in amusement."You are so full of yourself, Austin. Do you honestly think you mean so much to me that I have a need to tie you to my side?"

         "Hell, yes. Girl you know you love me and you'll love me forever."
     
         "I can get over it."

         "Yeah right I believe that as much as I believe there’s a man in the moon. I don't know how I can be more honest. I tell you my job schedule. You know where I am all of the time. My life is not my own. When would I have time to run around on you?  When I am not at work, I am with you. It's up to you whether or not you believe me. I think the best solution for us is to be apart."

        "Austin, I can love you for the rest of my life, but that doesn't mean I have to be a fool for you. You can't give me a clear reason why you won't live here with me and that keeps me from believing you. We don't even have to live here. If you worry because the townhouse is mine, I could move in with you even though this place is larger. Or we can buy something else. We don't have to live here."

    Austin sighs deeply and leans towards the interviewer. "Listen, all I can say is this, the argument became much more heated with each one of us saying hurtful things until I stormed out of the apartment and didn't her from her again for four years. The day I was hauled into the police station as a suspect in the kidnapping of a child I never knew I had. "


    CATRINE-- Catrine walks into interview room and sits in the chair. 
    "Okay since this is Valentine's day I'm going to let myself go to a dark place in my life. Just give me a moment." 

    Leaning her head on the backrest of the chair, she took deep breaths and concentrated on remembering the last day that she and Austin had spent together. She had purposely not let herself dwell on thoughts of Austin because she knew that deep inside she still cared very much for him. She and Austin had deliberately said some of the cruelest things to one another.
    Before the breakup, the arguments had been trivial, but after a very heated confrontation, she and Austin had decided to call it quits. She could remember the conversation as if it were being reenacted in front of her. Even after all most four years the remembered pain felt as if it were happening at that very moment. Taking a deep breath and keeping her eyes shut she began her story.

     "Okay, as I remember Austin had been standing in front of the very sofa where she was now sitting, opening and closing his hands and breathing so hard I thought he would lose control of himself and hit me. He had frightened me with the stillness of his body and the glaring looks he kept throwing at me. I had never seen him that furious, but then again, I was experiencing something I had never felt myself. The huge uncontrollable rage that had been engulfing me made me want to explode. And so I sat on the sofa tapping my feet in irritation and bemoaning the way the night was ending.

    In my imagination it should have been a magical affair. A definite liberation from the tensions and arguments we had been having throughout the previous two months. We had eaten a lovely dinner, cuddled, talked, made love and all of a sudden we were slipping into the same old mode. Pacing the room and having another one of our stupid arguments.

    Catrine was barely able to keep myself from running up to Austin and punching the hell out of his face as I sat and watched him angrily pace the room. His six foot-three inch stride was continually making short work of the width of the entire room. He looked like an animal trapped in a small cage. Stopping in front of the sofa, he bent and yanked a small pillow from its resting place on the sofa and thrown it angrily towards the wall before shouting at me.

         "What in God's name do you want from me, Catrine?" He turned to face her.

     "I remember stooping, to retrieve the pillow and replacing it on the sofa before getting all in his face or as near face to face with him as my foot shorter frame would allow and I poked his chest hard with my index finger as I stressed every word.  

     "I want you to be faithful to me and if not faithful, at least be honest."

          "Honest about what? What else can I tell you? How honest can I be to a woman that is so paranoid that nothing I say makes a difference to her? You know how I work. I'
    m a surgeon for Christ's sake."  He shook his head in thought of the futility of the situation. "My life is not my own."  He sighed irritably. "I do not have time to go running after some other woman. I tell you I have been seeing no one else and you choose not to believe me."

    "Of course I don't believe you. How can I? You won’t commit yourself to me, or this relationship. We’ve been seeing each other for almost a year and a half, I suggest that you move in here and you turn cold. What is the big deal anyway? This apartment is larger than yours and you act like you're comfortable while you are here. Maybe you just have a problem being here with me."

    "That's not it at all."
    "Well, make me understand, Austin. Tell me what I’m doing wrong. For the past two weeks you’ve found it extremely hard to be civil to me. You barely talk to me and you only touch me during sex. What's the problem? Do you think I want your money?  I'm not asking for you to take care of me, I can take care of myself. I have a great paying job and can pay my own bills. I just thought that it would be perfect to go to sleep with my arms around you and then wake up with you next to me in the mornings. I had stupidly thought that you felt the same."
     "That's bull and you know it."  
    Austin slammed his fist on the table, causing a flower vase to fall and spew its contents of water and dead leaves across the table and onto the floor. Its muddy substance staining the rose colored carpet.I was so pissed I gave him a shove in the chest and then had the nerves enough to order him to clean it like I thought I was his mom or something and he laughed at me.

    "You do it. And if you know what's good for you, you would back your short little tail up."
    .
    "Am I supposed to be afraid of you?" 

    Catrine looks towards the interviewer who is jotting down notes. "I moved back a bit, hands on hips and measured his length with her eyes. He just ignored the anger in my face, stepped closer and tapped me on the forehead with the tip of his pointer finger. I wanted to hurt him but all he did was laughing when I angrily slapped at his hand and missed."

    "Yes,"  he continued talking. "I don't know what makes you think you can run my life. You want total control of me. You want to know my every coming and going. You are worse than my mother. I can't live with that." 

    "You are one selfish bastard, Austin. You want me to save myself for only you while you go out and share yourself with the masses. So I’m just going to tell you this one time, from now on I’m out to please myself. I no longer want you in my life."

    "You mean to tell me, you are going to stand there and break up a terrific relationship because I won't move in here with you?"

    "Hell, yes and you know as well as I that it doesn't just have to deal with you moving in here."
    "Right, I wouldn’t bet on it"

    "Yeah, right I have the feeling that you only want me for sex."

    "Wait a minute. Don't go there. I can get sex anywhere, any time. Don't think there is none better than you."

         "You know I'm better than ice cream."
    She looked at Austin with a beguiling smile and her hands on her hips. He laughed out loud, forgetting for a moment that they were in the middle of an argument. He shook his head as if to clear his mind.
         "You forget that ice cream comes in a variety of flavors. Not that I want to try any." he raised his hands in defense. "I think you need help Catrine."
         "Not to deal with you." I looked him up and down.
         "To be able to deal with life, you're delusional. I know a couple of psychiatrists that may be able to help you. No, just listen," he held up his hand to silence me. "I am not about to get in another argument with you. If you want to give up something that could be the best thing you ever have in your life, it's your choice."
     "It's you that's throwing me away. Why in God's name would I want to be with someone that just wants to fu…?"
    "Don't say it."  He grabbed her hands and held them within his own. "You now I hate that word especially when you use it in that context. It sounds like we are just animals taking a random plunge. You mean more to me than that. It means a lot to me that you thought me worthy to be your first lover, but I don't want to live with you."

    "I yanked my her hands from his grip, and turned my back on him, wiped my tears and smoothed my hair before turning back to face him. I just knew whatever I said that this would be the end. Unable to hold his gaze I looked at my feet and pushed my hands into the pockets of my robe before taking another deep calming breath."
        
        "You know Austin I love you to death. I would rather be with no one else but you," I stepped back as he stepped forward. "But I cannot go on the way we have been. We argue all of the time lately and I can't deal with it. The best thing we could probably do for each other would be to not see each other again."

         "If that is the way you see it, then this will be your choice. Just remember that you are the one making this decision for us."

         Catrine looked towards interviewer. "I lost it then and my rage  just erupted."
         "How can you say that? I am not making the decision to get rid of you. I want you and you have your own reasons for your decisions. They just don't happen to flow with mine. I will not sit here and continue to pretend that things can work between the two of us when I know in my heart that you don't care for me. So, take your damn little duffel bag and get the hell out of my house!"

    "I picked up the small red bag that he always used when he stayed overnight and threw it towards him and he caught it in mid-air before crossing in front of me and walking to the door."

    "All right, I will go with pleasure. I had already tired of your little cling-on attitude and had wanted to call it quits. Just remember, it is not me that's ruining what we had, it is you. You just have the hots for some other guy and can't be honest about it. I have always believed that you have the potential to be one terrific bitch and now I know that I am right."

    "If I do, it's you who have taught me. I learned from the master slut."

    "You just can't wait to drop me. Don't call me when things start to fall on your head."

    "I will never call you for anything. This is the last time you will ever hear from me!" 

    Catrine stands and smooths her dress. "Listen, I can't do this anymore." She wipes a tear from her face. "Let's call this interview over." She leaves the room.

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