Talking

After eating breakfast you and Doe have some coffee while talking. You bring up the weekend before her wedding. “Why did you leave?”

She looks away, “I…I needed to think. I wish I had left a note or something. I should have. But…I knew that if I was there when you woke up I wouldn’t be thinking about discussing our future together. We’d be making love again. So…I did some thinking and I came to a decision.”

“To keep with the marriage?” You ask.

She shakes her head, “That came later. When you didn’t answer or return my calls. I was going to ask you to accompany me to tell Hank that he and I were through. Done with. Over. But…you never answered. You never returned the calls. It was then that I thought that…in my haste to think things through…that I had destroyed our friendship. I was so depressed. So depressed. I don’t think I stopped crying that whole week. I was holed up in my room at home…just bawling my eyes out. My heart was in a million pieces. But I held out hope that you would be at the wedding…that you would stand up at the objection part…and…and I would run into your arms and be happy for the rest of my life…our life.” He lips is quivering as she remembers. She sniffles and rubs her nose, “But you didn’t show up there either.”

“I’m sorry.” You say reaching out and holding her hand.

“How could you have known? Then a while later I realized I was pregnant, and somehow I knew it wasn’t Hank’s. I mean like right away. Hank figured it out after she was born. He started calling me names first. Whore. Prostitute. Hooker. Anything to break me down. He kept wanting me to throw myself to his feet, and beg forgiveness. When I wouldn’t do that he started hitting me. Lightly at first, then harder. What really made me leave him though was Courtney. I was afraid he would start taking it out on her. In fact…that last time he hit me was because he was about to hit her. I grabbed his hand and he spun and punched me. So I kicked him in the balls, grabbed Courtney, and ran out the door.”

Her recitation had left you cold and angry.

“I must have drove around for a two hours before I thought of your parents. I’m just glad the accepted me into their home.”

“Did you have any doubt that they would.”

“At that point…Hank was very close to breaking me. The only thing that kept me sane was Courtney. And through her you. For four years my only connection to you was Courtney.”

As you are about to respond you hear your cell phone ring in you pants pocket. “One second.” You get up, kiss Doe on the lips and move to where you had tossed your pants the night before.