After work, Claudia headed to Jazz. Caleb was already there waiting. She took the seat next to him, and she noticed that the man had emptied out a dozen cans of beer. Worry flashed in her hazel eyes.
"What's up Caleb?"
"You're not a heavy drinker. So something must be up. Spill."
She patiently waited for him to tell her what was wrong. She had a rough idea about what could have happened, but she didn't want to make any assumptions.
Caleb drank two more cans before opening up.
"She called looking for me," he said in a daze.
"She" was Stephanie, the girl he had blindly fell for.
"She wants you back?"
He laughed crazily. "I wish babe. Her boyfriend needs a kidney. Apparently, she wasn't aware I had left town. She pleaded with me to give up one of my kidneys for the sake of my love for her."
Tears flowed down his face. He tried to suppress his wails, but it was too hurtful. She was so shameless to bank on his love for her to get his kidney for her boyfriend.
In what fantasy world was she living in? After giving up most of his youth to chase her, she wanted his kidney too. There were bad people in the world, but Stephanie was just a horrible person who had no bottom line.
"Don't think about it anymore. She's not worth your tears anymore. Save some for the birth of your daughter in the future."
He finally cracked a smile. He gave up on drinking and just rested his head on the table. He needed time to heal.
"Take your time to heal Caleb. Time will fly by so fast, you won't know what hit you," she comforted.
"... but if you keep holding on to Stephanie, she will keep on clipping the wings of time and you'll be stuck in the same painful cycle for a long time."
He sighed heavily and raised his eyes to meet hers.
"You just know what to say to snap me out of it. I told her never to call me again. Guess what she said?"
"I'll leave him for you once he gets better?"
"Not even close... she said I'll never find someone better than her. Isn't that laughable?"
"She was rootless til the end. You'll be fine buddy."
Caleb was a great guy, and he was going to find someone right for him.
When he calmed down, the friends chatted about other things. She told him about her expansion thoughts, and he also had the same plan for his taekwondo studio. They talked more in-depth about the plan, and she slowly let go off her troubled heart.