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“Hold on, I didn’t say that you gossiped about me or us. I just asked if you talk to her about us, and if you do, it’s fine. My point is you have the chance to see other couples who are close to each other, but it’s just today that you have been so loving towards me. Not that you weren’t before, but you’re doting on me, and you didn’t do that before,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Krissy replied with a shrug. “I guess I just realized how good of a man you are, and I want you to know I feel that way. I fully believe there are too many people in the world who live their lives without realizing how incredible they are. I don’t want you to be one of those people. Especially after all you’ve been through.”
“After all I’ve been through?” I asked in surprise. “What do you mean?”
I noticed her demeanor change, and she seemed to close down as though she’d said too much. She tried to steer me away from the comment, but I wasn’t letting that happen.
“You’re a veteran,” she meekly replied. “That’s all. I didn’t mean anything specific.”
“You knew I was a vet when we got together, and this is the first time you’ve acted this way,” I told her. “And you had already been close with Erin and Neils for a while, so it’s not like this is the first time you have been around a veteran and his wife.”
“So?” she asked with a dismissive shrug. “Maybe I just had to have a refresher in my brain. Now that I’ve seen the way they act with each other and know it’s what I want too, maybe that made me want to treat you with the same kind of attention Erin shows Neils.”
She gave me a look that was almost challenging with her explanation, as though she expected me to back down after hearing that. Not that I was supposed to be satisfied with the explanation so much as she didn’t want me to ask any more questions.
But there was something about the conversation that didn’t sit right with me. I knew Krissy well enough by now to know she wasn’t influenced by Erin that way. Her explanation didn’t match up with the rest of her personality, and I wasn’t going to let her give some explanation she pulled out of the air to keep me quiet.
“You and I both know that’s not true,” I told her. “And I don’t want you to sugarcoat shit when you say things to me. Just tell me straight what’s going on so we can move on. I don’t care if you’re embarrassed, I just want to know.”
She sighed. “Okay fine. I know about what happened to you on your last K & R mission.”
“What?” I gasped. I was expecting her to tell me she’d been reading some online article or something that caused her to treat me this way. Something that was going to make me chuckle, knowing how much she was trying. The last thing I thought she was going to say was that she knew about my past.
“I know, I didn’t want to bring it up to you because I didn’t want you to have to think about it all over again, but I want you to know that I feel for you, and I think you are a hero for what you did, really,” she told me, speaking quickly.
“How did you find out?” I demanded.
“Are you mad?” she asked, surprised.
“I’m furious!” I snapped.
“Why?” she demanded, her tone changing as she spoke. She was getting angry too. I could see it.
“Because I didn’t give you permission to know that about me,” I yelled. “That was a private incident that happened in my past, and I didn’t give anyone permission to talk to anyone else about it! You said you don’t gossip, but I don’t know what you call that. It was gossip, and this is beyond fucked.”
“Settle down!” Krissy cried.
“I’m not going to settle down,” I snapped. “You went behind my back, and you talked about me with someone who told you about my past. It wasn’t anything I wanted to share with anyone. I wanted there to be just one place in my life where I didn’t have to deal with that, and now you know. And you’re babying me because of it!”
“I’m not babying you!” she argued. “I just wanted you to know how much I care about you and how much I appreciate what you went through! This has nothing to do with babying you!”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m leaving,” I said. I got up and grabbed my bag, shoving the few things I had brought with me inside.
“You’re leaving?” she demanded. “And how are you going to get back?”
“I’m driving,” I said.
“Don’t try to stop me.” I glared at her, and she backed down.
“How do you expect me to get home?”
“There are two other adults here, and they both have cars. If they need gas money, let me know, and I will make sure to give it to them,” I flatly replied. “Where are the keys?”
She tossed them to the end of the bed from where they had been sitting on the nightstand next to her, and I snatched them up.
“This is fucked,” I said once more on my way out the door. “Beyond fucked up.”
“You’re telling me,” she said.
