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Bain stares at me for a long moment and I can tell he’s sizing up something. “Bad relationship,” he says with confidence and a smug smile.
Two words and he has me pegged.
“Yeah,” I admit with a dry, humorless laugh. “Really bad relationship.”
“Want to talk about it?” he asks, and I’m surprised that his question sounds genuine.
And yet… no, I’m not all that surprised. Despite us having a rocky patch where both of us floundered a little trying to figure out what we were to each other, I know Bain’s a good guy.
“It’s not that interesting of a story,” I admit. “His name is Peter and we were college sweethearts. He seemed perfect until he wasn’t.”
“Like how?”
“He became really controlling.”
Bain’s hands squeeze reflexively as his face darkens. “Abusive?”
“Not physically but mentally, verbally. He became obsessive and tried to cut me off from friends. If I went out, he’d accuse me of cheating on him and then call me names and scream obscenities. Always apologetic, but that was part of the cycle. His behavior got scarier and I finally broke up with him. He didn’t take kindly to it, so there was a bit of stalking after.”
“What did he do?”
My stomach pitches thinking about it. It was a terrifying time in my life. “It started as more annoying than anything. Calling and breathing into the phone. Then it was nasty letters, which turned into nasty phone calls until I changed my number.”
“How come I feel like that was the easy stuff?” Bain asks hesitantly.
“It got worse. My tires were slashed and there was a dead cat left on my doorstep.”
“What the fuck?” Bain snarls, sitting up straighter.
“He’d sit outside my house all night in his car.”
“Please tell me you called the cops.”
“Yeah… they don’t hand out restraining orders easily, but I eventually got one. I guess that scared him because he moved back home to Indiana.”
“Jesus,” he murmurs. “How long ago was this?”
“I ended things about four years ago. It’s all fine now. Haven’t heard from him in a long time. But it sort of put me off serious relationships.”
“It scared you,” he surmises.
I smile at him because he understands far better than I would’ve imagined. “Yeah. A lot. I know it’s not fair for me to think all relationships will be that way, but I can’t help it. The minute love came into the picture, things went downhill fast.”
“Sounds like he was mentally unbalanced,” Bain ponders.
I shrug. “It’s in the past and I don’t dwell on it.”
“I have a question.” Bain throws his head in the direction of the kitchen. “I saw an admissions packet for the University of Pittsburgh on your counter.”
“Nosy,” I chide teasingly.
He looks in no way abashed. “You thinking of going back to school?”
My gaze drops as I rest my hands on his. “Nah… not really.”
“Then why do you have an admissions packet?”
Pursing my lips, I shrug. “I don’t know. It’s what I wanted to do before Drake got the offer with the Titans, but once I committed to come here and help watch the kids, it sort of got put on the back burner. I guess I was curious about the curriculum so I ordered the packet.”
