Saving Her Billionaire

She decided that she would call Nate, that she would tell him how she felt. She thought for a long time about this as well. Did she love him? This was an important question. She didn’t want to have to force love, and she didn’t think Nate would force her to feel that way, but at the same time it was important for her to know her own feelings because Nate would not want to force himself to love her either, and Phoebe, of course, did not want him to feel that way at all. She realized that she did, indeed love him. How could she not? He was a sweet, kind man that cared about her feelings, that cared about what she thought. He made her feel love, even if he did not love her back, and Phoebe knew that this would be enough.

She picked her phone up to call him, and was about to dial his number when she suddenly got a call. It was from an unknown number. Confused and curious about who this could be, Phoebe answered.

“Hello?” she said, putting the receiver of the phone against her ear.

“Hey,” said the person at the other end. It was a woman with a very pretty and melodic voice. Phoebe felt like she knew that voice intimately. She felt like she had heard it several times before, that she had been used to hearing that voice at one point in time. She felt like she had heard this voice so much at one point that it had become, for a long time, one of the most important voices in her life. There were a number of emotions attached to this voice, a number of memories. She pondered during the silence that followed their greetings who the owner of this voice was, and it did not take long for her to connect the dots and realize who it was on the other end.

“Ruth?” said Phoebe.

“Oh my God,” said Ruth, “did you recognize my voice?”

Phoebe did not know what to think. Why was her ex girlfriend calling her right now? What could she possible want? Phoebe felt her heart rate increase. She did not want to have to talk to Ruth right now, not at this moment when she was starting to make one of the most important decisions of her life. This was simply not something that she wanted to have to deal with. She needed to be able to talk to Nate, yet here Ruth was.

“Yeah,” said Phoebe. “Why… why are you calling me?”

Ruth was silent for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry, did I disturb you?”

“I was kind of in the middle of something,” said Phoebe, “but that’s not the point. Why did you call me, Ruth? It’s been a while, I didn’t even have your number saved anymore.”

“I just wanted to talk,” said Ruth. “Would that be okay? Would it be okay if we just talked to each other for a little while? Nothing too heavy just… okay maybe a little heavy, but if you don’t want to talk I’d understand.”

Phoebe was curious now. She wanted to hear what Ruth had to say. She wanted to find out what had made her ex girlfriend, with whom she had not exactly broken up very amicably, call her so long after they had last spoken. Phoebe had a feeling, an idea of sorts about what Ruth wanted right now, but she did not want to think about that. She hoped desperately that the feeling she had right now about what Ruth wanted was not true. She wanted to be able to live her life without the added stress of what she was sure Ruth was about to say.

“I wanted to ask you,” said Ruth, taking Phoebe’s silence to mean that she wanted to hear her out. She seemed unable to complete her sentence. She hesitated, Phoebe could hear the sounds of this hesitation over the phone, before finally saying, “I’ve missed you, Phoebe. I’ve missed you so much that I can’t even tell you. I… I actually got depressed after we broke up. I missed listening to your voice as soon as I woke up, I missed talking to you right before you went to sleep. After I lost you I… I felt like I would never be able to love again.”

“Why are you saying these things to me?” asked Phoebe angrily. “Why are you calling me now, after all this time, and telling me that you miss me?”

“Because I want to get back together,” said Ruth. “I realize now that what I did was wrong. I should not have given you such an ultimatum, I should not have made you feel like you had to choose between being with me and the freedom that you so obviously desired. I… I understand, Phoebe. I understand that you don’t want to have children and I don’t want to force you. I promise I won’t force you anymore. Everything else was good, wasn’t it? Everything else was perfect, I’d say. I never thought that I’d feel so connected to anyone, but I felt that connected to you, Phoebe. I felt like you understood me better than anyone else in the world, and I am not afraid to say it. I’m not afraid to say that I’d do anything to get you back.”

Phoebe suddenly started to feel light headed. She didn’t know how she could tell Ruth the truth about her current situation. She was angry and sad and frustrated, and the tempest of these negative emotions was swirling within her and making her feel like she was going to explode.

“I can’t talk to you right now,” said Phoebe. “I can’t. I need to be alone. Please, please just leave me alone.”

“Okay,” said Ruth. “I’ll leave you alone for today, I promise. I won’t try to make you give me an answer immediately, I’m done pressuring you. I want you to be able to make this decision freely, I want you to want this. I won’t call or text today, okay? I’ll call you tomorrow at this time. Take this time to think, okay? Take this time to think about this and try to think hard, Phoebe. We were happy together, I know we were. We made each other feel loved, and it’s not every day that you find someone like this. I don’t think you made a mistake by leaving me, I think the mistake was mine and I’m trying to fix it. Alright, bye. I won’t contact you today, I promise.”

Ruth cut the call. Phoebe put the phone down and put her hand to her mouth. She had no idea what she was going to do.