37. Ugly Truth

'What? What the hell happened with this woman?' That was his reaction after Diana sent a lot of messages asking about his condition. James woke up on the couch and received all those words, the first thing he saw was an annoying word from Diana.

She didn't mean to annoyed him, she was just worried about James's condition after she had seen James drunk the last time they met. Diana read most of James's books after that, she wasn't the type of one-night-reader before, but after she knew all the comments on the James book, she curious and almost read one book one day.

James was shocked, his head still dizzy and he didn't remember what happened last night after he got home. The last memory in his mind was standing in front of the window and then 'blank…' all gone. He felt like someone was erased his memory.

He opened his phone if there was any clue to make him remembered. He read all of the messages from the last night, only Diana and Ed there. 'Okay nothing important,' he kept scrolling down, 'wait a minute…' he realized that Diana only wanted to know his condition.

He re-read what was going on with Diana and him. The last message that he replied was, "What do you mean?" That was because James didn't have an idea what happened with her, and why she texted in the first place. Then she gave a lot of replies. 

"What? I'm worried about you because the review that they gave to you was horrible and mean. I know that you'll hit the bottle again after reading that." [23.15]

"Hey! Don't ignore me! I know you still awake, at least replied to my message." [23.18]

"James!! Are you drinking again? You must be drunk, aren't you? [23.30]

"That's the reason why I'm worried about you, you always drunk with nobody around and that's dangerous. What if there's something happened? Okay, I'll come by to your place tomorrow." [23.42]

'Wow, what a woman, she's sent all of those messages?' James didn't take that seriously, he stood up and opened the fridge to search for some food. Although, he knew that nothing inside only beer and freshwater left. James was surprised when there were some ingredients left but his hand and mind were too tired to cook some breakfast. 

James changed his outfit, he wanted to get Chinese food. He didn't want to cook or buy an ingredient for the next day. Just before he wanted to change, he remembered the message that Diana had sent. 'Wait… did she said that she wanted to come by?' 

He rushed to find his phone, and called her right away, 'c'mon picked up! Picked up!'

"Hello?" A smooth voice came from the line, with the noise as a background.

"Diana? Where are you?"

Diana exhaled relieved, "Oh, it just you. What happened this time?"

"Hah, what do you mean by what happened?"

"Seriously, I'm in the middle of the work right now," Diana answered shortly, James could hear the keyboard typing.

James snapped, Diana made him really confused. "You said you'll come by today, and don't act like you didn't remember!"

"Ahh…yeah I said that… wait are you really desperate to see me?"

"What! Hell no!"

Diana giggled, "So why are you asking? I said that but I didn't say to come this morning. Maybe this afternoon,"

James sighed, he ran out for words, "…Just come at night if wanted come by, I've worked at afternoon."

"Huh? What do you mean by that? You're a writer, you work from—" 

James hung up, he didn't want to be asked anymore. 'What the hell happened with that woman, she got a problem obviously.' James threw his phone at the couch and back to his bedroom to change. Put on some track pants and a hoodie to buy some breakfast.

James looked at his watch, it showed 9 a.m. suns starts crawled up. He was rarely to go outside this morning unless for a cup of coffee. He walked out in the busy place as always, busses everywhere, people ran over to make sure they weren't late. So crowded and noisy, that's why James hated this time.

He came to the Chinese food restaurant, ordered dumplings as always at the Chinese and some Sichuan pork. He didn't know why he chooses to eat pork as breakfast. The pork was Christy's favorite food, and they always ordered pork at the Chinese  restaurant. That habit still on James, 'I should get rid of her as fast as I can.'

Christy had influence most of his life, now he regrets every second that they had. He kept reminiscing and pondering what happened in the past. While he kept eat and slice the Sichuan pork, his mind still worked and tried to get rid of everything in the past.

Just one thing that was still left on his mind, Ed's hypothesis. When she met with this new guy, was it after or before the breakup? That's the question right now, he wanted to find out but he didn't know the way to do that.

After finished the meal, he went straight away to his apartment. Just had to take a quick walked and he arrived. He cleansed himself at the cold water, the ritual before to make himself felt better. He sat at the laptop after it, tried to find out "the new guy" from Christy's social media. But turn out that wasn't easy as he imagines.

Two hours in front of his laptop and nil, he got nothing. 'Ah, fuck! Why is it so hard? Damn it!' His curiosity killed him under the surface. He desperately wanted to know, he knew it was just a hypothesis and it could be wrong. But he had a feeling that he should find out.

It shows almost 2 p.m. James change his outfit and prepared to went to school. He wanted to come earlier than he should be. The last time he did that, he could saw her new boyfriend picked her. He wanted that to happen again.

He hit the road at full speed. Within less than an hour he arrived, lot of parents parked and waited for their child. There he was "the new boyfriend", stood next to his black Range Rover. Waited with his perfect jaw and well-shaved beard. James was hesitant to come to approach him. 

He took a deep breath to gather his courage. 'Okay let's do this', he walked toward him. Just before he called him there were parents gather around him.

"Mr. Nathaniel?"

James was shocked, "Yes?" Still didn't know what happened.

"I have to thank you—" One of the mothers grabbed his hand, "—because of you my child spent his time reading and writing instead of played his PlayStation."

"Ahah… glad I can help," James smiled, tried to calm down. 

"Oh yeah, Mr. Nathaniel—" Now one of the fathers came after him. They did the same thing, express their gratitude to him. Not just one they were five people who came to him, with a face full of happiness because of James.

The bell was ringing, and students started coming out. 'Oh shit, I failed, just one step ahead and I asked him some questions.' Christy came from the hallway, hugged her boyfriend. James panicked and moved back, hide behind his car. They kissed again in front of James then went inside the car. Moved far away from James, again he watched his love kissed the other lips.

'Shit! Not again!' If the parents weren't crowding around him, he would know the truth by now. He glad they had great respect for him but now he couldn't answer the last question that stuck in his head. He was glad and sad at the same time.

James stood behind his car, pondered alone until some voice called him. "Mr. Nathaniel, it's the time."

"Yep, right away Mr. Galloway," He ran to the hallway, but something pops up in his head. Some idea, "Wait… Mr. Galloway, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, what happened young man?"

"Umm… does Christy I mean… Ms. Hawthorne… does Ms. Hawthorne always picked up by her boyfriend?" James really nervous asked him about this.

Mr. Galloway stared at James wondered, "Yeah, she always dropped by his boyfriend and he will pick up in the afternoon,"

"Ah, okay…so how long he had been doing this routine?"

Mr. Galloway narrowed his eye, "What do you mean? He always been doing it for a long time, maybe…almost six or seven months ago?"

James couldn't believe what he just heard.  He froze at the moment, 'what the fuck? Six or seven months ago? That means…she cheated on me?' James knew the truth that would hurt him even more, this is the ugly truth. The pain that he had at the moment was the pain of the betrayal, he felt like he had stroke by a bolt in the shining day.