“I won’t.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, and when I turned to look, she was wiping at her eyes beneath the glasses. “God help me, but I’m not going to take off. I’ll wait here until you get back, and we’ll go back to your house together.”
“Home,” I insisted. “We’ll go home.”
She cried harder as she shook her head. “That will never be my home, Meyer, no matter how much you wish it. But I won’t leave you.”
Threewords sat on my tongue, but there was no force on Earth that could bring them into existence. I could never say those words to anyone, much less a woman I was holding under duress. But I wanted to give her something. A thank you for still staying.
“What candy do you want?”
She sniffled. “Sour Patch Watermelons.”
I nodded. “Okay. Give me ten minutes.”
“And a cherry Pepsi.”
“Sounds good.”
I left the keys in the ignition so she could listen to the radio, and when I emerged minutes later with her drink and candy and a tiny pill in a small white bag, the car was still there with my whole world inside it.