The Love Hotel

“Rochelle,” said Seth cautiously, careful to use her proper name lest he incur her wrath yet again. “Listen to me… I’m sorry. We can fix this. We had so many good times, you know? We had so many things worth fighting for. Have you forgotten all of that? Are you going to throw all of that away simply because of this one mistake I made?”

“It’s not just one mistake,” said Rochelle. “And the fact that you think that it’s a single mistake is pretty much the reason I need to leave you. It is the whole reason that I can’t be with you anymore. I am coming over to get my stuff. I don’t want you to be there. That is all.”

Before Seth could respond, she cut the call. She had known he was going to do that. She had known he was going to try to make her take him back. She wanted him to know that was not going to happen, so she was glad that he had done it. She was glad he had asked her to take him back simply so that she had been able to refuse him. But, at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel anxious now. She felt a panic rising. What if she saw him at the apartment? She had asked him to leave, but Seth was extremely stubborn. He was the kind of person that did not let anything get in the way of him getting what he wanted. He was the kind of person that always won in the end. He was proud of being an alpha male, and he was proud of the fact that he doggedly pursued each and every thing that he wanted until it was his. He was probably going to be at the apartment when Rochelle got there. And when she got there… then what? What was she going to do? Was she going to be able to simply go in, take her stuff and leave? What would happen when she saw his face, when she actually looked at him as he tried to take her back? She didn’t know what she was going to do. What if she ended up taking him back for real?

She didn’t know how she’d be able to handle that. If the old Rochelle took over this might very well become the case, so she needed to go in there thinking she would not do it. She needed to affirm it to herself in order to be able to avoid it happening entirely. She needed to be able to fix this situation, because if she didn’t she was going to have to deal with something a lot worse.

She took a deep breath and composed herself. She couldn’t allow herself to be like this. She was going to need to be stronger if she was going to do this. And she was going to do this. If it was the very last thing that she did. She was going to do this.

She took a taxi and headed home. She texted Seth and told her that she was going to be there in twenty minutes and reminded him that she really did not want him to be there when she got there. He did not reply. She hoped that meant he was already out. She hoped beyond hope itself that this was going to be as easy as it possibly could be, but at the end of the day she couldn’t help but think that after everything that had happened this was not going to just be a cakewalk. She knew after all that had happened, this was going to be incredibly difficult thing to do.

She was proud of one thing, however. She was proud of the fact that she was going to be able to get through it even if it was difficult. She had gotten it into her head. No matter what happened, she was going to get out of that apartment with her head held high. She was going to do this and she was going to win. No matter what happened… she was going to win.

She sighed as she got out of the taxi. She looked at the apartment building that had been her home for the past three years. She had had so many good times living here. They had been a lie, though. Every single moment of happiness that she had experienced in this apartment building had been a lie, and she was proud that she was able to think of it that way. She was proud that she was able to see things as they were for once in her life. She was proud that she was not going to let this enormous setback beat her in any way.

She looked at the apartment building for a moment longer before entering it. Her heart was pounding as she entered the elevator and started to move up to the floor that she had been living on for so very long. The hallway held a lot of memories too. Memories of Seth kissing her out of the blue, that time that he had dropped all of the groceries and both of them had laughed as they had helped each other pick them up. All of them had been lies. All of these memories had not really been happy because the person she had been experiencing them with had been lying to her the whole time.

She got to her apartment and looked under the doormat. There was no key. She felt her heart beating. It felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest. He was inside. He was in the apartment. Seth, the man that had broken her heart, was in there. He had not left. She wondered for a moment if she was going to be able to do this. Then, all of a sudden, her trepidation was replaced with indignant anger. It was replaced with the anger that came to people whose rights were being taken away from them. She was not as afraid as she had once been, not anymore. This was not the Rochelle that was easily frightened anymore. This was the Rochelle that took what she wanted.

She rang the doorbell and within seconds Seth had opened the door. She looked at him for a moment. He had a nasty scratch across his face. Rochelle was responsible for that. She felt no small amount of pride for the fact that she had caused him so much physical pain. He deserved it. He deserved every little bit of pain he felt at her hands because he was a despicable human being that took things for granted and made the people that loved him feel like they were worth nothing at all. She hated him. She didn’t care that he looked like he hadn’t slept or showered. She didn’t care about his messy hair or the dark circles underneath his eyes. She didn’t care about how guilty he felt. All she cared about was getting her stuff and leaving.

“I thought I told you that I did not want you to be here when I got here,” she said scathingly. “Can you not understand simple English? Are you stupid as well as cruel?”

“Rochelle, come on,” said Seth, but she ignored him yet again and pushed him aside as she entered the apartment. She went into the bedroom and dragged the suitcase that she owned out from under the bed. She didn’t care that he was looking at her. He could look at her as much as he wanted. That was irrelevant. She was going to do what she needed to do and leave. She was going to do the things that were required of her and she was going to get out of here. She didn’t have time for this. She didn’t have time for any of this.