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*****
I used the key she’d given me and let myself into her side of the duplex, dropping onto her sofa and tossing my keys onto her coffee table. I sat there staring at the floor, still suffering from the effects of a fucked-up day at work. When she entered the room, I looked up and gave her an unconvincing smile, said, “Hey, baby,” and dropped my eyes to the floor again.
She slid into my lap and I wrapped my arms around her, kissing her gently on the lips and pulling her tightly to me.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, as she hugged me back, resting her head on my shoulder, a cloud of soft, kinky hair brushing against my cheek.
“Work.”
She sat up and looked me in the eye. “What happened?”
I sighed, rubbed my forehead, and slowly told her.
“Anyone can make a mistake, baby. Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she offered.
I shook my head. “It was a stupid mistake, Angela. I don’t make mistakes like that. My boss asked me if I was distracted, brought up our videos…”
I could feel her body stiffen. “What’d you say?”
“That I’d fix it. And I did.”
“No, about me being a distraction. Do you think I’m a distraction, Ryan?”
“Honestly? Yeah, a big one.”
She stood from my lap. “Hmm, well…you’ve been here, what? Five months now? That means you’ve only got a month left to be distracted by me, so I guess that’s a good thing.”
I leaned forward and dropped my head. “You gotta bring that up now? And it’s actually six weeks, not a month. My little fuck-up bought us two more weeks.”
As soon as I said that, I regretted it. It didn’t come out right, sounded all wrong.
She stared at me. “Bought us two more weeks? So…what? We’re over when you leave?”
“Angela, I did not say that. That’s not what I said at all, and I’m stressed the hell out right now. I just almost lost my damn job. Now is not the time for us to discuss this.”
She cocked her head to the side and scoffed. “When is a good time to discuss it, Ryan? When you leave in a month—oh, my bad. I forgot you bought us some more time together.”
“Damn, really? You wanna do this now after the day I had? For real, Angela?”
“I just wanna know what’s gonna happen when your job here is over since you’re the one who said you’d figure something out. What’s the plan, Ryan? When do you plan on sharing it with me, because I’m on pins and needles wondering what’s going to happen. I’m in this relationship and I have no clue what direction it’s going in!”
“Shit, neither do I, because I haven’t figured it out yet! Damn! What do you think I’m gonna do? Dump you three seconds before I hop on a plane back to Houston?”
“That’s the fucking point, Ryan! I don’t know!”
“Angela! I can’t think about this shit right now!”
“Have you been thinking about it at all?”
“Angie—”
“You haven’t, have you? What are you doing? Just hoping this situation will fix itself? Well, it won’t! Either we’re going to be together or we’re not. You need to tell me which one it is.”
“Do you wanna break up? Is that it?! Is this your way of telling me?!”
Her face softened a little as she furrowed her brow. “Ryan, I didn’t—”
“You know what? Fuck it! Let’s break up right now so your ass won’t be in fucking suspense anymore. That’s what you want, right? You’re so damn convinced it’s gonna happen, then I’ll make it happen. It was fun, I enjoyed it, but whatever. It’s over. Done.”
