Month: May 2020

Her shoulders rose with an inhale, and she turned around. Her eyes met mine. “Please stop.”

Fuck. “Stop what?”

“Don’t do this.” She shook her head. “Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. I don’t want you to change. I never did. I don’t need you to be anyone but who you are. If that’s an angry biker with a street name, so be it. But please, just…” Her hand waved toward the stove. “Don’t do that. The man I dragged outta the swamp, he didn’t make tea.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He never would’ve done that.”

She was right.

Lost inside my own damn house, hell, my fucking life, I laid it all out for her. “Everything I did, I did for you.”

Her gaze cut to the floor. “I thought I was doin’ the same.”

“He played us both.”

“I know.”

The waves crashed outside, the water on the stove boiled, and the air conditioner kicked on. We stood there. She stared at her damn feet. I stared at her.

“I don’t know what else to say to you,” I admitted.

“The Tarquin I knew wouldn’t have done that either. He wouldn’t have said that.”

I dared to fucking ask. “What would he have said?”

“Nothin’.” She looked up at me. “He didn’t waste words.”