Broken Dreams(73)

Henry jumped in and slammed the door. After pounding his fist down on the steering wheel a few times, he threw it into drive and sped off, weaving in and out of traffic. People honked at him, flipped him off, and yelled obscenities at him. He didn’t care.

He flew into the blood bank’s parking lot, then stormed through the doors. Steve, one of the phlebotomists, was leaning against the reception desk, chatting and flirting with Jennifer, as usual.

“Running a little late this morning, bossman?”

“Fuck off, Steve.” Henry stormed past them.

Steve looked at Jennifer and shrugged. “I wonder what his problem is.”

“Yeah, he’s never like that. Something is up.” They heard his office door slam.

“I’m going to call back and check on him.” Jennifer picked up the phone and it rang about five times before he picked up.

“What!” he yelled into the phone.

“Hey, bossman,” she said in her normal singsong voice, as if he didn’t just tear her head off. “Just checking up on you. Is everything alright?”

“No. Just leave me be for a while, please. If I get any calls, take a message.” He slammed the phone down.

Jennifer pursed her lips at Steve. “I have a feeling I know what the problem is.”

“Yeah? Glad you do. I’m fucking clueless.”

“Most men are.” Steve let out a sarcastic chuckle.



***



Henry sat at his desk with his head in his hands. He felt an unfamiliar lump rising in his throat. He realized how bad he had it for Elaina because he had never cried over a woman before.

“Shit,” he moaned as he opened the locked drawer in his desk and looked down. There was one of his many Sig Sauers. He ran his fingers over the cold steel. Then he pulled out the bottle of Walkers. He slowly twisted off the cap and tipped it back. After a long pull, he put it away and headed for his bathroom.

Henry wanted to get rid of any evidence that he had been crying. He splashed some cold water on his face. Then, he looked into the mirror and saw that his eyes were graying.

“Fuck me.” He left the bathroom and locked his office door. He went to his mini-fridge, which was padlocked, as usual. After putting in the combination, he opened the door and pulled out a couple vials of blood. He sat back down at his desk and shook them. After popping off the caps, he tipped them back.

A shudder ran through his body. He hated the blood cold. He always liked it straight from the vein because that’s when he would get his high. For some reason, he never felt as good after cold blood. He would just get a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He loved making love to Elaina after he had a fresh intake. Sex was ten times better after it and they would go at it several times throughout the night, into the morning. The thought ran across his mind that he may never get to make love to her again. It would only be “fucking” with anyone else, like it had been before…if he could even bring himself to fuck someone. Panic hit him. He felt himself starting to cry again.

“Fuck me,” he mumbled again as he wiped his tears away.

Henry grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called Sophie, the only person he could talk to about all of his fucked up bullshit. He hoped she was available.

It took a second for the call to go through, since he was calling England, but it finally rang a couple times.

“Liam!”

“Sophie…don’t.” He sat with his head in his free hand, leaning on his desk.

“Sorry. How’ve you been, Henry?”

“I need to talk to someone.”

“Shoot.”

“Remember how I told you about Elaina?” He swallowed hard.

“Yeah.”

“We had a huge fight.” He swallowed hard, trying to hold back his emotions. “Sophie, I’m dying here. I’ve never felt like this before. My chest… It hurts like a motherfucker. When I got back to my office, I fucking cried. I still am.” Just as he said that, more tears fell from his eyes and landed on the desk calendar.

His eyes darted around the calendar, and he saw where he scribbled her name and put a heart next to it. He did that just a couple days prior when they chatted on the phone before he left work. He rubbed his thumb over her name.

“Oh, shit. You’ve got it bad, haven’t you?” She hadn’t realized until then how Henry felt about Elaina. She knew he had feelings for her, but didn’t realize how deep they went.

“I love her so fucking much. I don’t know what to do.” He wiped his face again.

“What happened?” She was concerned for him because he sounded lost and defeated.

“She thinks I’m cheating on her because I won’t let her go to my flat.” He felt a sob trying to escape. “I would never cheat on her.”