Two.

As she walked down Sandoval, Maggie’s head spun with a jumble of thoughts and memories that clouded her vision. Her heart raced as she built up the courage to face Clark. She had betrayed him and Maggie didn’t even feel that she deserved to be forgiven for what she’d done.

Memories filled Maggie’s head as she walked down the street, avoiding the judging eyes of the passersby and the stares of the homeless sitting on the sidewalk. She remembered the first time she met Clark, how she knew right then and there at Jen’s birthday party that he was the one. He appeared in her life out of the blue, and she took it as a sign. A sign from the heavens. Your life is going to change, starting tonight, she thought to herself as she sipped a Cosmopolitan. It was as if she saved up a year’s worth of good luck to receive the chance to meet this man, and put a year’s worth of the bad behind her as the future ahead brightened.

They went out for close to ten months, which was the longest relationship Maggie had ever been in. She found out what it’s like to be in love, being with Clark. She thought about the last time she’d been with him, drunk at some nameless bar listening to a lousy band. Things seemed so simple then. It was just her and him, the alcohol, the laughs. Then things got complicated, she met Rob, and things fell apart. Maggie was one to fall for a person too easily. Every time that she met someone new that she was interested in, she threw herself completely into attaining them while dismissing any relationship that she was in at the time. She’d lost count of how many boyfriends she’d lost because of a newer, cuter, more mysterious guys she found herself falling for. Old habits die hard, and Clark was no exception. He’d been another victim of Maggie’s wandering heart, and she never looked back. It was easy for her to leave them behind; this time it was Rob, and she was too engulfed in him to even think about how she’d dropped Clark out of the blue.

After she stopped seeing Clark, he’d call and leave messages on her machine. He professed his undying love for her. He told her that fate was their matchmaker, and that they belonged together. But Maggie was out spending most of her time with Rob and put Clark in the back of her mind. Eventually the calls trailed off and she forgot about him. Until the day she found out that Rob was seeing someone else behind her back. She ran into them at the Bee Hive Bar, kissing on the back patio. Tears streaming down her face, Maggie fled to the warm comfort of her apartment. The next morning, she decided that despite her foolishness in handling his love, she would pay Clark a visit and get him back.

734 Sandoval, apartment 309. Maggie let herself in through the main door to the building with the key that she hadn’t returned to Clark. She took the stairs to the third floor, not sure what she was going to say if he was home. The air in the hallway was stale, smelling of cheap cigarettes. Through a door somewhere “Freebird” was playing. Light at the end of the hallway coolly glowed through a dirty window leading to a worn-out fire escape. She stood at Clark’s door, silently, nervous as to what was about to happen. She knocked loudly. She heard someone walk up to the door, and saw the light through the peephole go black for a second as it was looked through. The chain was undone, and the door opened. Clark leaned against the wall with his left shoulder, and stuck his head out enough to talk, but didn’t open the door all the way. It was evident by his body language that he wasn’t about to invite Maggie in.

“Why’d you come here?” he asked, his eyes shooting arrows at her.

Maggie found, to her surprise, that she was fighting back tears. “I...came to say I’m sorry.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Forgiveness was not on the agenda.

“I know I fucked up. I was wrong for what I did. I can’t give any excuses for what I did. I know that.”

He stared in silence.

“I also know that I want you. You. We had so much, and I want that back.”

There was poison in his voice. “Oh. What’d you think? That I’d be honored that you want me in your life -- that you want me to be the one for you?”

Maggie stepped back in surprise. Something in her chest sank.

“Is that it? Is that why you came over? You came here to get me back?”

“Yeah. I thought we could work things out.” She wanted to reach out and grab his hand, hoping that everything would magically solve itself.

“Well forget it. You can go straight to Hell for all I care.”

Maggie wasn’t expecting this to happen. But she should’ve known better. Fairy tales were never a part of daily existence. She pleaded: “But --”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t want you anymore.” Clark stared at her intensely for a second that stretched itself out. He then slammed the door shut, and left Maggie in stunned silence. She let the tears go. She stood there alone in the stuffy hallway, face in her hands, crying to herself. Over her sobs, she could hear the patter of the rain on the metal fire escape as the sky opened up.


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