The Height Of Happiness

Unable to look at her, Serena nodded saying, “It wasn’t your fault. Thank you so much for your warm hospitality, Lydia. I’ve loved getting to know you.”

Serena was frantic to escape, but she hadn’t lost the manners her parents and grandparents had taught her as a child.

Storming to her guest room, Serena didn’t stop for anything. Even though Teddy called after her with a variety of attempts at stopping her, comforting her, and apologizing for the embarrassment, Serena marched on and into the room. In a whirlwind, she rushed around the room grabbing up her few things. She got her clothes off the floor and her makeup out of the bathroom.The whole time Teddy stood in the doorway trying to make sense of it all. His body language told her loud and clear that he couldn’t get a grip on what was happening right in front of him.

“What are you doing?” he finally asked in a perplexed tone.

“I have to leave.”

“How? Do you even have a flight?” Teddy asked. “Wait, you told me you don’t! What are you planning?”

“I’ll book a train or plane or car or something!” Serena exclaimed, trying not to cry.

Teddy tried to reach out, she pulled away every time. She ran around the room looking for her things, and then quickly shoved them into her bag. As she futilely messed with the zipper on her luggage, Edward seemed fed up.

“Wait, Serena, just wait!”

She stopped, and turned back to look at him. He seemed crestfallen. Behind his usually bright eyes lay a soft longing that muddled the electricity that came from his charismatic nature. His usual light had left him as he waited for some kind of explanation.

“What’s happening? Why can’t you just… stay?”

“Stay? Here? With you and your ex-girlfriend? With these people who now know about my s*x life? I look like a joke!”

“Daphne doesn’t matter,” Teddy explained. “Her fatal flaw is that she has a very fixed view of the world and its events to the point that she can sometimes be… delusional.”

“So you didn’t date her?”

Hanging his head, Edward stared at the floor, “We did date off and on for a year in college.”

“And after traveling over the summer together, you didn’t have s*x on that college trip?”

“We did.”

“So she was just lying about how you went zero dark-thirty on her afterward when you got back to school that fall. That was where the delusion came in?!”

“I was a teenager and a moron with testosterone poisoning. I did not know how to handle my mistakes then.”

In a huff, Serena felt fed up, “I’ve been mortified enough to last me a lifetime today because of her. Right now, I just want to go home.”

Nodding, Edward pulled out his phone, “I’ll call you a car, and the family plane can take you home. Don’t worry about tickets or anything. I’ll take care of it.”

Sighing as she stood there feeling uncomfortable, Serena finally mustered up a word of gratitude with, “Thanks.”

“I’m sorry you are cutting your trip short. I would have liked for you to stay the whole time… longer even.”

Serena looked away as she mumbled, “Me too, Edward.”