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"Baby, don't look at me like this. Please, give me one chance to explain. Five minutes."
I was losing her. She was slipping through my fingers like sand, right in front of my helpless eyes.
I reached for her, and in an automatic gesture, she stepped back, and it pained me. Rita running away from me ripped me to pieces.
"Don't touch me." Her voice was whispered and cracked, making me shrink. "Why?"
There was a lot of accusation in her tone and rightfully so, but if she would only listen.
"Love, nothing changes. I'm still the same man you go to sleep with every night, the man who loves you like crazy."
"I don't fucking know that man, James!" she snapped back with a shouted whisper, and I was so grateful she didn’t raise her voice to match her state of mind. The last thing we needed was an audience.
"Two minutes. All I need it's two minutes with you, Rita; it's all I'm asking." Hell, I'd go to my knees and thank the sky if she'd grant me thirty seconds.
But she didn’t. With her beautiful face scarred by remorse and disgust, she turned on her heels and bolted for the exit. I didn’t have time to lose, so I started on her tracks and shot a quick message to Wendy: Need to leave. Emergency. Take care of Chelsea.
Where the hell did she go?
I was trying to find her in the sea of people that were trying to make their way to the happy couple, but it was hard to distinguish anything between so many colors and sparkly jewelry. Finally, I saw a corner of her crimson dress disappearing behind the bathroom door, and I decided to follow her.
This couldn’t be over; it couldn’t end like this. I would not allow it.
I walked into the ladies’ room, and two pairs of scrutinizing eyes belonging to two older women I didn’t recognize turned my way. I thought they were Zach's grate aunts - the cheater and the beater, and if the stories were true, they earned those nicknames.
"Excuse me, young man, how dare you step in here. This is the women's toilet."
Shit! I didn’t need schooling right now.
"Yes, ma'am, I'm sorry. I'm just looking for my wife." I looked around, but it was like Rita had vanished from the face of the earth. What the hell? I'd seen her coming in here.
"You should have waited for her outside; this is preposterous, it's..." her rant was cut short by the sound of a woman throwing up. My woman.
"Ladies, if you'll excuse me."
I went to the last stall and pushed on the door, but it was locked. I couldn’t get to her, and it was saddening, especially because I could hear her breathing hard and struggling behind the fucking door.
"Rita, baby..."
"Go!" she yelled at me and flushed the toilet.
"Love, please, please, I'm begging you. Please, open the door and let me see you." The anguish was crushing my throat.
"Get the hell away from me." This time, her tone was steady, but the words were charged with repugnance.
I killed her beautiful smile. That serenity and admiration she had in her eyes merely hours ago was gone, and I was the culprit. I knew I was to blame, but I would not let it stop me.
"Rita, for God's sake, let me see you." She said nothing so I decided to change my tactic. "Getting your memory back can be...this nausea might be a sign for your level of stress, or worse, an abscess..."
To my surprise, the piece of wood that was blocking me flew open with such force, it hit the wall.
"Don't do that. Don't play the good doctor with me. How dare you?"
How dare I, indeed.
"Rita, I love you."
"Oh my God." she walked to the sink with clumsy steps, and I could tell she was dizzy. Fuck, this was so hard on her. "You are one of those psychos they show on the Discovery Channel. What were you going to do? Drain my blood? Gut me in a ditch? Force me into a human trafficking ring?"
