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“You tell me.” Tori peered at him suspiciously.
“That’s Jack’s sister, Dana. She’s a piece of work.”
“Oh, she was working it all right. Obviously. I saw you with her at Ringo’s.”
“What were you doing at Ringo’s?” Now he was the confused one.
“I wanted to try to be more involved with your life. I was going to surprise you. Instead, you surprised me.” She flipped through a few more photos. “I was standing in the entryway. You didn’t answer my text that night, either.” She gave him a cold stare. “I saw you ignore it.”
“I just didn’t want to get into anything. Dana was being a pest, and I was trying to dissuade her from mauling me.”
“How good of a job did you do?” She kept her stare.
“She backed off and moved on to Joe. Why didn’t you ask me about this? Is this why you’ve been acting, I dunno, distant?”
“I have to tell you something.” Tori gulped a good amount of air.
“Are you having an affair?” he asked.
“What?” Tori blurted. “You can’t be serious.”
“Then what is it?” He had a pleading look in his eye.
For the first time, Tori felt that she could drive this bus. She was matter-of-fact. “Look, I haven’t been happy for a very long time. Over the years, we’ve drifted apart. It’s as if we’re two strangers living under the same roof.”
He buried his head in his hands. “I feel like I’ve failed you.”
Tori was shocked to hear his words. “What do you mean?”
“When I talked you into running away, I had big dreams for us. I wanted to give you everything you never had. A big house. A nice car.”
“We have a nice house and a big car,” Tori said, with a slight bit of humor.
He snickered. “That wasn’t exactly my plan.”
“I think that’s where we zigged when we should have zagged. We never had a plan. We were flying by the seat of our pants for years. Then when we got comfortable, we became complacent.”
“I still love you with all my heart. I honestly do.” His eyes were welling up with tears. Tori couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him express himself this way. “I know I’ve been a prig at times, but I’m just mad at myself. I should have done a better job providing for you.”
“That’s not what I wanted. I can provide for myself just fine.”
“Exactly,” he muttered.
“What I wanted was a partner. Someone to share my life with, not just a roof over my head. We never talk. We never do anything together.” She sighed. And then she realized that they were having the conversation her boss encouraged her to have. “We’ve made love maybe once or twice in the past eight months.” She was sure it was at least once.
“I thought you didn’t want me, and you were disappointed in me.”
“It’s the opposite. I want to share time with you. I want us to be together more. Look, I know you like hanging out with your friends, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some quality time together.”
He looked up at her, wiping the tears with his sleeve. “Wow. We should have had this talk a long time ago.”
“I know, and I blame myself. I’ve always avoided confrontation. I thought if I brought up anything that you didn’t like, we would get into an argument. I guess I was hoping for magic thinking.” She used the term George Layton introduced to her during the conversation she had had with him.
“Huh. ‘Magic thinking.’ Yeah, that probably doesn’t work very much, eh?” He finally smiled. “So.” He paused. “Do you think there is a chance for us now?” He took her hand and looked into her eyes, pleading for her acceptance.
Tori almost fell off her chair. “Honestly? I would like to think there is, but I don’t really know.”
“Do you still love me?” His eyes were pleading.
