Page 42 of Chasing Amanda

They sat in silence.

Mark still needed to call his mom and tell her he wouldn’t be home. He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. He needed to call the detective. Hopefully, he’d be able to set up the interview for early the following day. The sooner he got out of Providence, the better.

Other than those two calls, he had nothing to do but wait for the day to be over.

He hadn’t even asked Amanda about her bruises. Did she feel okay? Was she hurting? Was she nervous, all by herself?

Was she thinking of him?

He stood, looked around.

“Where you going?” Justin asked.

He sat again. “I don’t know.”

His friend stared at him, eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand something.”

“What?”

“Why are you here? I mean, after everything you did for this woman, all the time you spent with her, you obviously have feelings for her.”

“We just met.”

“So what? Everybody meets their somebody at some point. Maybe you just met, but that doesn’t mean⁠—”

“Let it go.” Mark was too tired, his emotions too close to the surface, to have this conversation again. “I’m deploying.”

“Not to be repetitive, but so what?”

“I’m not getting married.”

“Grow up, man.” Justin pushed to his feet. “We’re not children anymore.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.” His friend returned to the kitchen table, grabbed his coffee cup, and dumped the remains in the sink.

Mark did know.

They’d been eleven years old, and Mark’s parents had just had another one of their episodes. Not fights. They never fought in front of him. Instead, his mother would make some cutting remark, his father would give her his signature look and walk away. That look said so many things. Mostly it said, Will I ever be good enough for you? A question Mark had asked himself a million times.

This time, Justin had seen everything. They’d decided marriage wasn’t worth the hassle.

Justin washed his cup, then grabbed the coffee carafe. “Do you know why I asked Marie to marry me?”

“She wore you down?”

“I broke our pact because I met the right woman.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“But you’ll never do it.”

“I won’t.”

Justin dumped the coffee grinds into the trash, then leaned on the counter toward Mark, his hands clasped together. “Not every woman is like your mother.”

“I’d watch my mouth, if I were you.” It was one thing for Mark to talk about her, but…