Making the Break
 

There was no going back to sleep after Richie called. Toni sat in the middle of her bed with the phone in her hand. She wished she’d just told him she was leaving him and got it over with. It was hanging over her like a storm cloud and she knew if she didn’t do it soon the cloud was going to burst. Travis already told her to tell him and get everything up front but it wasn’t easy for her. She’d let three days go by already.

She got out of bed leaving the phone in the middle of it and went downstairs for a cup of coffee. Thankfully her mother was not up yet and she took her coffee back upstairs to her room. Pacing back and forth she made up her mind to call him later that morning. It had to be done and the sooner she got it over with the better she knew it was going to hurt him and she had no real desire to hurt him she’d loved him and still did. They just weren’t the same people anymore they didn’t feed each other anymore and something had died between them.

She flopped down on the side of her bed and the phone bounced over to her leg and she picked it up and dialed his number.

“Richie.”

“Yeah Toni, you awake now?”

Toni could hear voices in the background, “Where are you?”

“I’m at the Tavern at Millie’s.”

“Um I need to talk to you…privately.”

Richie felt it growing in his chest, “Hold on a minute, I’m going outside…okay shoot.”

“Uh, Richie you know things have not been good between us for a long time and uh.”

“So where are you in LA?”

“What?”

“Is that where you’re calling from, LA are you with Travis?”

“No, no I’m at my mother’s .” How could he know?

“See that’s the thing about cell phones, you could be anywhere how would I know the difference?”

“I’m in Virginia Richie call the damn house phone talk to Mumma. I called you to tell you that I’m…I’m leaving you Richie we can’t fix it anymore,” Toni was crying now, “I don’t want to keep trying to fix something that’s not going to ever be right again.”

“You know what Toni…fuck you.” Richie threw his phone across the parking lot.