I Broke My Heart

I Broke My Heart

Addie Warren

Chapter 1

Since the breakup, I found myself like many single wo
m
en, without the comforts of a man in my life.
 
To put it plainly, I had not had sex in five months.
Normally, being who I am, it wouldn’t have bothered me. However, as I left my office today, I overheard my colleagues discus
s
ing how sex could help in managing their stress. I had been a physiologist for five years, and the fact that sex could help in dealing with stress should not have su
r
prised me. However, when I thought of sex, I thought only of what the body undergoes in the process. Te
m
perature begins to rise, respiration becomes rapid, a
r
teries constrict, muscle tense, heart rate and blood pressure accelerates and if it wasn’t that sex is fun and necessary for continuity of life, the thought of what the body undergoes would be enough to discourage me from sex.

             
In the parking lot outside of my workplace, I cranked the key in the ignition to start my car and then pulled out into the street. As I drove, I couldn’t take my mind off the thought that had occupied my mind since I left office. I began to think that maybe I was truly stressed because my sex life wasn’t that great. Since my college days, I had spent most of my time studying and when I was not studying, I was busy working in the l
a
boratory. My undergrad experience in research and laboratory work got me a job at Taolab biopharmaceut
i
cals. Ever since I took the job, my life had not been much different from when I was in college. My life was still the same boring routine of studying and conducting biolog
i
cal researches.

             
In this past month, I was beginning to hate my life and mostly my job. It was boring and it was begi
n
ning to suck me into a thick fog of loneliness and d
e
pression. In fact, I didn’t even know how to
have fun anymore. Besides that my job had taken fun out of me,
it was stressful. Today was even more stressful than other days. After I completed my daily research, I had to pr
e
pare for the new supervisor that would be reporting for work the next day. I spent most of the day making sure everything was in place.

             
I yawned as I stopped at the traffic signal. After a hectic day, I was hungry and fatigued. At that point, I remembered that I didn’t have anything at home that could be prepared quickly for dinner, so I would have to pick up some groceries. Immediately, I made a turn and headed towards the nearest grocery store.

             
I pulled up at Wal-Mart parking lot and before I got out, my phone signaled that I had a text. It was a text from my friend, Max. Max was the only friend I had. He was also evidence that a man and woman could be close friends without any sexual relationship involved. He was my age and lived only few blocks away from me. We had a great platonic relationship.

             
I read his text message. It read;
Hey Addie, dinner at my place tonight. Love, Max.
I smiled, because I knew I wasn’t going to have dinner with him that night. Having dinner with Max during weekdays was a recipe for lat
e
ness to work the following morning. I quickly texted him back that I would not be coming.

             
After the text, I rushed into Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries. When I reached the checkout, I searched in my purse to find my wallet. It took me a long time to find the wallet because it was hiding in a corner in my big purse. When I finally found my wallet, I raised my face and my eyes fell on the young man at the checkout opposite of me. He was tall. In fact, without my high-heeled shoes, he was almost twice my height. The suit he was wearing fitted his height and it looked more expensive than any suit in my wardrobe. His horn-rimmed glasses, though stylish, made him look nerdy.

             
“Cash or card, Ma’am,” the impatient voice of the cashier came.

             
“Oh! Of course, card,” I stammered as I quickly refrained from the degrading act of staring at a man who hadn’t even taken notice of me. As I swiped my card, something in me told me to take another look at him. Against my better judgment, I looked at him again. This time, my gaze met his. I quickly withdrew my eyes and pretended as if I wasn’t looking in his direction.

             
As I finished entering my four-digit pin into the card machine, I
again looked at him. He was
the most handso
me man
I had ever seen, and
I just couldn’t take my eyes off him. Ignoring the tiny voice in my head that warned against it, I let myself take another look at him. I found his looks and build captivating. His muscular arms and solid chest, which even the suit could not hide, were beckoning to me to wrap myself in his embrace. His blond well-cut hair and the whole of his appearance reminded me of that famous
Hollywood
actor, Brad Pitt.

             
I quickly got a grip on my thoughts, telling myself that it wasn’t this stranger that caught my attention. It was the fact that he looked like Brad Pitt, who I once had a crush on, that caught my attention.

             
I stumbled out of the store and walked towards my car. Opening my trunk, I threw all the st
uff I had bought in it
. As I closed my trunk, my eyes caught a glimpse of a man standing behind me. I looked at him. It was the man whose looks had caught my attention some minutes ago.

             
“Excuse me, ma’am, do you know me from somewhere?” came his low gentle voice.

             
God help me! I found his voice as captivating as his looks. My eyes followed the gentle movement of his lips and I
thought that I might
kiss him.

             
“Know you? Of course not, why do you ask?”

             
“I noticed you staring at me in the store. I thought maybe we had met somewhere before.”

             
“Staring at you?” Frustrated at not being able to come up with a quick explanation in an embarrassing situation, I tried to deny my looking at him. “No, no. I wasn’t staring at you,” I stammered to a halt.

             
He smiled gently. It was an attractive sort of smile, exposing his beautifully set teeth. “It’s okay. I’m used to ladies staring at me.”

             
His insinuation that I was the same as other l
a
dies who melted when looking at him, accompanied with the arrogance with which he said those words, angered me.

             
“Listen, young man, I don’t have time for your arrogant and idle talk. If you think all ladies melt at your feet just from looking at you, I am definitely not one of them. In fact, I, Addie Warren, was not staring at you.”

             
“I’m sorry.” His words came out even gentler than before. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean my words the way they s
ounded
.”

             
He was apologizing, but I could recognize the sarcasm in his voice. The way it sounded to me was that he was making fun of me with his apologies.

             
“Save your apologies for someone you can still make a good impression on,” I snapped. “Now if you will excuse me.”

             
With that, I got into my car and drove off. As I drove, I began to think that maybe I had been too harsh with him over nothing. I should have accepted his apo
l
ogies, introduced myself to him or even made up stories saying that we had met before. Maybe, I could have had a chance with him, but I had probably missed any chance of ever seeing him again. Worse than that, I just missed my chance of finally having sex again.

             
At that point, I quickly called myself to order. That I had been thinking about sex since I left the office must have clouded my sense of reasoning. If not, I would not be thinking of having sex with a stranger, whether he was good-looking or not. Besides, it took more than good looks to get me to jump into a man’s bed.

CHAPTER TWO

The next morning, I tried on the first of the two suits I was thinking of wearing to work. The skirt was a little long and oversized. I really needed something that would show how fit I was. I was supposed to meet my new supervisor today and I wanted to make a good first impression.

After trying on the second suit, I decided it was exactly what I wanted; form fitting and classy. Standing in front of my full-length mirror, I noticed the way my full, long hair graced my shoulders, and I loved it. For a moment, I was tempted to leave my hair down and flowing. However, knowing that it was against the l
a
boratory ethics
to leave my hair flying, I decided to put it up into ponytail. After that, I slipped into my high-heeled shoes, reached for my purse and stumbled out of the house.

When I got to my office, I slipped into my clean laboratory suit and rushed to my supervisor’s office. Before I entered, I stopped to take a last view at myself, checking to see if everything looked perfect. Satisfied, I stepped into the office.

From under his horn-rimmed glasses, he peered at me. As my eyes fell on the man, my breath caught for an instant. The man I had met at Wal-Mart the day b
e
fore was my supervisor. While I was working hard to make a good first impression, I didn’t know I had already made my first impression in the middle of Wal-Mart. He was the last person I e
ver expected to see again and i
f the look on his handsome face was any indication, he wasn’t expecting to see me either.

I stood there like a statue, not knowing what to say.
And e
ven though, I thought about how rude I had been the night before, it still did not stop the intense conne
c
tion I felt with this man. His brown eyes gazed conf
i
dently into mine. The penetrating intensity of his gaze almost took my breath away. I felt as if I had always known him, that he had always been a part of me.

Reason flooded through my mind, making me remember why I was there. I tried to clear my throat to begin a conversation, but I still didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, he decided to save me from the awkward situation that I found myself in ever since the very m
o
ment I stepped into his office.

“Look, I acknowledge that our first meeting didn’t go well yesterday and I apologize for my part in it. Can we begin again?” He extended his hand toward me in greeting. “I’m Cleve Reeves,
a
microbiologist.”

“Addie Warren, a physiologist,” I said as I reci
p
rocated with a handshake.

With a gesture, he indicated the armchair facing the desk. “Please, take a seat while I brief you on our next research.”

Cautiously, I took a seat opposite of him. With one hand, he grabbed a document off the top of his stack and handed it to me. I took it and began to skim through it.

“As you know,” he started, “I will be here for about three to four weeks to supervise this research, after which time, I will return to the head office in New York City.”

I nodded.

“From past studies, we know that most bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics through hor
i
zontal gene transfer. This horizontal gene transfer often involves plasmids. Plasmids are extra chromosomal genetic element that occurs in any bacterial strains. The purpose of this research is an attempt to invent a new stronger antibiotic that possibly these bacteria wouldn’t be able to resist. We’re going to begin this research with primary procedures such as plasmid extraction, protein purification…”

An hour passed by the time he finished briefing me about the research. It was almost 10:00 in the mor
n
ing and my stomach was beginning to rumble because I had skipped breakfast.

“Mr. Reeves…”

He cut me off. “Call me Cleve, please.”

I nodded gently. “I’m afraid I skipped breakfast this morning, so if you don’t mind, I would like to go grab something to eat.”

“You know, I skipped my breakfast this morning too, so if you don’t mind, we could go grab something to eat together. Considering, I’m new in Baltimore, I need someone to guide me to the best restaurants in town.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I replied, “The Co
m
pany has a dining service.”

“Cool. I take it that we can leave for the dining hall now.”

I nodded, stood and walked towards the door. His footsteps followed mine more quickly than I had expected and he soon caught up with me. He was so close that my shoulder brushed against his. He was much taller than I was and I resented having to look up at him. So, I didn’t bother to look.

When I reached the door, I started to reach for the doorknob, but he beat me to it, placing his palm over mine. His palm was warm and the size of it made mine seem awkwardly small.

“Addie.” The way he said my name made me feel as if he was attaching something more to it. “Allow me.”

He was so close that I could feel and hear his breath, causing me to freeze for a moment. All of a su
d
den, I was afraid that he was going to kiss me if I didn’t move, so I quickly let go of the doorknob. He yanked the door open, but his large body still covered the doorway. He stared at me and gave another of his gentle sedu
c
tive smile. “You know, Addie, when you’re not in a bad mood, you’re quite beautiful.”

I didn’t know if he was just giving me a compl
i
ment or if he was flirting with me. I was a bit confused on how to respond.  When I didn’t say anything, he shifted aside and extended a hand as a gesture for me to step out and we both walked to the dining hall.

****

   When we got to the dining hall, I ordered for sandwich and a cup of strawberry yogurt shake. He o
r
dered for sandwich and a cup of Pepsi. My eyes flew open when I heard his order. “Really? Pepsi for brea
k
fast? What kind of diet are you on?”

He smiled. “It’s either beer or soda, and since I can’t have a beer at work, then I’ll go for soda.”

“You could h
ave ordered fruit juice,
cranberry or pomegranate. Anything, but soda.”

“Addie,” he called gently. “What exactly do you have against soda?”

“Soda is a recipe for obesity.”

“Are you trying to say that I am fat?”

“
Yes.” I stammered. “I mean
n
o, of course not. You have a perfectly masculine…” I stopped myself b
e
fore I said something I would regret. With my response, I had co
n
firmed that I took notice of his body, something I had attemp
t
ed to avoid letting him know. Like every other man who is aware of his handsomeness, Cleve was as
k
ing me if he was fat, just to see if I had checked him out. Dammit! I just gave him the satisfaction he wanted.

“You know, the latest study revealed that soda is as healthy as a fruit juice. These drinks can only make you gain weight if your butt is super-glued to the couch and you have no activity whatsoever,” he said.

At that point, our order was served. Immediat
e
ly, he grabbed the cup of soda and gulped it down. He handed the empty cup to the waitress, “Refill please.”

I shot him a glare, but it was obvious that my glare didn’t bother him. He grabbed his sandwich and took a bite. After he swallowed the bite in his mouth, he looked at me and said, “No, in answer to your next que
s
tion, my blood sugar and insulin level is not high. My blood pressure is normal and I have no history of heart disease or diabetes.”

Immediately after he said that, my brain told me it was okay to get down with this man. I mean, he was tall and handsome and aside from that, he was healthy, educated, smart and wealthy. To ensure that I produced offspring who would be fit to survive,
the theory of
na
t
ural selection told me to mate with this man. There was something about his arrogance, not to mention his body, which made me want to have sex with Cleve.

At that point, I told my sex drive to shut up.

By the time we left the dining hall, I felt as if I had known Cleve a long time. We had a good convers
a
tion a
nd we laughed
together easily,
without emba
r
rassment.