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Claude turned away and got dressed.
“This is the last thing. I promise.”
“I don’t want this anymore.”
“Want what?” I asked, feeling a knot grow in my stomach.
“Any of this. I don’t want any of it!” He said, as if realizing it for the first time.
“Where are you going?” I asked when I saw him filling his travel bag.
He turned to me.
“I don’t want this, Merri. I never did. You sold me something that wasn’t real. And I don’t want it anymore.”
“So you’re just gonna go?” I asked, watching him collect his stuff. “Go where?”
“Home. Where I should have been. Where I should have never left.”
A cold sweat covered me. This was my nightmare.
“I don’t understand. What did I do?”
“I don’t know, Merri. Why don’t you tell me what you did?”
“I don’t know. Tell me what I did,” I said, rushing to my feet and following him out of the room. “Please tell me what I did.”
With his bag packed, he turned to me coldly.
“If you don’t know, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Please don’t go, Claude. I’m begging you, don’t go,” I said as tears filled my eyes.
That didn’t stop him. Marching towards the door, he was about to walk out when he pulled something from his bag.
“Here, you can have this. I won’t be needing it anymore.”
I took the flat package from him and froze with it in my hands.
“Bye, Merri.”
“You’re just gonna go?”
He looked back at me. Then, without another word, he left.
I stood staring at the door, stunned. What had just happened? I didn’t understand.
Turning to the package he had given me, I searched it, looking for answers. Inside was a card and a large picture frame. Opening the card, it read: ‘For your first day back at work. You got this. I believe in you. I always have. And now you have something for your wall. ;)’
Flipping over the picture frame, I found a collage of our life together. On the top left was a picture from football practice our freshman year. Below that were pictures from our camping trips. On the right were parties where we were being silly. And in the center was from the 4th of July, the night we made love.
Staring at it, I cried. What had I just done? Had I finally ruined things forever?
Chapter 14
Claude
I couldn’t do it. It was too much. How many times could I push past what felt comfortable and keep going?
