Chapter 9: No "Happily Ever After"

Jenny let him go. She didn't go after him. She knew Val, and knew he needed time alone. He'd calm down, see things more clearly and then come back to her.
"He loves me more than life" she told herself... and added louder, as if trying to convince herself, "he'll come back to me."
She decided the best thing to do was to try and keep herself busy, so she turned on her laptop. She started working on her résumé to bring it up to date, and then she'd begin looking for a job. Yes, that sounded like a good plan...

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Val left the house and walked aimlessly... all he wanted to do was to go as far away as possible from that nightmare his life was suddenly turning into. Jenny and him were the perfect couple... it was unthinkable that there could be any other man in her thoughts and yet...
It was nearing 9 am... he'd need to start work soon, but he didn't have his laptop and he wasn't going to return home to get it. Not while Jenny was in the house... he was too angry and hurt to face her. And he wouldn't have been able to carry it anyway... not, walking with crutches. Val felt grateful his habit of grabbing his cell phone on his way out had not failed him. He dialed his office and called in sick...

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It was almost noon and Jenny hadn't heard from Val yet. She thought of lunch, but had no appetite so she took a break from her job search and stepped out to their backyard. She cleared a lawn chair off snow, lit the outdoor fireplace and sat down. She could see the mountains towering over the ski town from there. She loved the view, but it brought her neither joy nor peace of mind. She thought of calling her parents or one of her friends, but she didn't feel like talking. So she just sat there and felt miserable.

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Lunch time came and went, but Val had no sense of the time. He was all too aware that he had been walking non-stop all morning as his feet and legs were beginning to be really sore. Some rehab workout he had put on! He had reached the South end of the ski mountain and as he looked around, noticed an Inn across the street. He went in and took a room.
He dropped on the bed thinking he might doze off... he was tired enough. But he didn't and couldn't stop thinking of Jenny's last words. "I don't think I want to..." she didn't want to make the sacrifice she had to.
He turned on the TV hoping to muffle down that voice in his head telling him all the ways in which Jenny was betraying their love... it didn't work. The voice was too annoyingly painfully insisting and kept drawing his attention away from the TV.
Finally he decide to go down to the Inn's bar. Maybe a drink or two would help lessen the pain in his soul. He entered the bar and sat on a stool resting the crutches against the counter.
"A Guinness please." He asked the bartender. His favourite beer. He emptied the bottle and then had another... and then one more.
"Hey buddy, take it easy" said the bartender in a fatherly tone. "A bit early to be drinking like that, don't you think?" it was mid afternoon." You downed three beers as if you were drinking water."
Val had never been much of a drinker and three bottles of Guinness were definitely far more than he had ever had... but that afternoon he was going to make an exception and keep going until he passed out.
"I'll have a gin-tonic now, please" his speech was already a bit slurred.
"You better not be thinking you're going to drive out of here, pal" the bartender said sternly.
For all answer, Val showed him his room key and then emptied his pockets on the counter as proof he had no car.
"See? No car keys... no car" he said and then added " my drink, please?"
After the gin-tonic, Val decided he was drunk enough and headed back to his room hoping he'd make it. He did, although a bellboy had to help him, and again he lied down hoping to fall asleep. But luck was not on his side. He then noticed a small fridge and went to open it. He found inside small bottles of every alcoholic beverage he knew and some he'd never heard of. He grabbed them all; 25 in total; and stumbled back to the bed, propping himself in a sitting position, his back against the headboard. One after the other, Val gulped down the drinks until when he was about half way through them he finally dropped on his side and was unconscious before his head hit the mattress.

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It was almost dinner time and Val had not returned neither called. Jenny was beginning to get worried and went to find her cell phone to call him when the text message ringtone sounded. It was a text from Val. She tap her cell phone screen to open the message with a trembling hand, both hopeful and terrified at the same time of what she'd find... but she could have never been prepared for what the message said.
"I'm not coming back" her eyes misted with tears and she started to cry, but forced herself to keep on reading. "You need to pack your stuff and leave the house... I'm going to see a Realtor tomorrow morning to put it up for sale." Jenny almost dropped her cell phone on reading this and had to find a chair to sit as her legs suddenly felt like rubber. "Keep the car. I'll have my name removed from the registration as soon as I have a chance. Goodbye, you will not see me again."
Jenny was too numb with grief to have any reaction. Like an automaton, got up and went to their bedroom to start packing. It took her all night and was almost done when she passed out on the couch out of exhaustion.