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“I meant, move past.”
She flinched. “No, you didn’t. You’re always so God damn literal. What? Is this your way of telling me you have a new girlfriend already?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Wait…don’t tell me you’re fucking Blondie.” Her eyes widened. “You are, aren’t you? I saw the look on her face when she saw me back at the festival. She looked like she’d seen a ghost. I knew she had the hots for you that night back at the restaurant, but I had no idea she moved this fast.”
“Don’t be crude, Jessica. It isn’t attractive.”
“Oh, she must be good. Well, lucky for you, I’m good, too. And I just so happen to be in a very forgiving mood.”
She tried to sidle up next to him, but Nate held her at arms’ length. “Cut it out.”
She quickly changed tactics. “I read that newspaper article about you,” she said, her voice soft and contrite now. “Was it all a lie? It made it sound like you missed me.” Her face scrunched up. “And…you lied to me, Nate. You told me you had a signed contract with Dr. Morrison and that’s why you couldn’t take the surgical fellowship down in Miami, when all this time you were free all along.” She began to sniffle. “Was our entire relationship just one big joke to you?”
“Don’t be dramatic. You know it wasn’t. As for the part about the contract—I do have a contract with Doc. It just isn’t a written one. If I mislead you on that count, then I’m truly sorry.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” she asked.
“I already told you. I suggest you try to get your old job back.”
She stood and tossed back her hair, all evidence of her near crying gone. “I’m not a quitter. You know that about me. I’m not giving up on this job and I’m not giving up on us. So, I suggest we sit down and eat dinner, and then later, we’ll go to bed—separate beds, that is, because I’m certainly not going to allow you to make love to me tonight. Not until you’re ready to admit you love me and want me back, that is.”
“You’re not staying here, Jessica.”
“Where am I supposed to go? It’s after nine and there isn’t a hotel in this town. Do you expect me to drive all the way to Destin or Panama City without a hotel reservation?”
He took out his cell phone. “I’ll make you one right now.”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Speaking of which…her cleavage seemed mightily enhanced since the last time he’d seen her. She followed his gaze and smiled. “That’s right. I even had surgery for you, Nate.”
“For me?”
“You think I never noticed the way you used to stare at other women when we were together? I have no pride left, Nate. I’ve given it all up. Just to win you back.”
He was speechless. Except then he realized this was exactly the way Jessica used to manipulate him when they were together. Why had it taken him so long to see what Lanie and his mother had clearly seen from the beginning? He felt like the world’s biggest chump for staying with her for so long.
“I’m not going to dignify that last piece of bullshit you just slung my way. We’re done, Jessica. Even if I have to physically remove you, I want you out of my house. Now.”
“I’m staying right here, Nate, and that’s that. Go ahead, kick me out. I dare you.” The gleam in her eye told him she was calling his bluff.
He’d love nothing more than to kick her ass to the curb. But obviously, he couldn’t really do that. “Fine, you stay here. I’ll go find somewhere else to spend the night.”
“Wait! That’s not what I meant!”
But Nate wasn’t waiting around for anything. He grabbed Hector from his cage, and walked out the door.
*~*~*
Lauren would always remember the day she realized her marriage was a sham. Oh, Tom had loved her (in his own way). He was kind. He was handsome, and smart, and funny. He was a good provider and a great father. All her friends back in Atlanta had been jealous of her. It wasn’t a bad way to go through life. She had so much more than a lot of other people. So whenever she began to wonder if there was something missing in her marriage, she immediately shut that feeling down. Ingrate! She’d think to herself.
And it had worked for almost eleven years. She’d gone through her marriage like one of those horses you blindfolded to get through some horrible procedure.
The funny thing was, it wasn’t some lightning bolt come down from the sky that had given her her epiphany. It had been something rather ordinary, and horrible at the same time.
Momma had been telling her for months that Daddy hadn’t been “right.” But Lauren had brushed it off. Then on a weekend visit to Whispering Bay, she’d seen it for herself. They’d gone out for dinner, just the three of them, Momma and Daddy and Lauren. Daddy had insisted on driving and Lauren hadn’t thought anything of it. On a perfectly normal evening, on what should have been a routine drive back from Panama City, a drive Daddy took two times a day, five days a week, for the past thirty-eight years, he’d gotten lost. Not going down the wrong street lost. But completely and utterly lost, like he’d never been on those roads in his life. He’d been so confused that Lauren had to insist he stop the car. They’d argued briefly by the road side and Lauren had ended up snatching the keys from his hands.
The rest of the drive had been uncomfortably silent. A month later, they got Daddy’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. She had tried not to cry, of course. But it had been impossible. She sat on that chair in Doc Morrison’s office and the tears had come fast and furious. So she’d reached out to get a Kleenex, and that’s when she saw the look on her Daddy’s face.
