Page 31 of Richard

He needed to hear her voice and was afraid that she would try and get out of seeing him. But he had granted her seven days, and he would stick to his promise, even if it killed him and the way he felt now, it probably would.

Then after the seven days had passed, he would make damn certain she was with him. Tucking the material into the pocket of his pants, he laid back down and closed his eyes, content to let the memories of what they shared consume him.

*****

Collette woke up the next morning after a very restless night and decided that she should go for a run before going in. Thinkingthat it would help her to exorcise the ghosts of last night, she donned the appropriate gears and headed out.

It was the end of November and everywhere there was evidence of the fall. Her own patch of yard was littered with fall colors.

The trees were shedding their leaves, and the wet ground underneath her maple was littered with russet-colored leaves, reminding her that it was time to do some yard work. Or she could call Thomas, an elderly neighbor who did odd jobs for her, and could easily take care of it.

It was Saturday, and she didn’t usually go into the office, but she had some backlog to clear up. Besides, work was going to help to take her mind off what had happened last night.

She had yet to come up with a solution to the problem, but she had spent too much time on it already. She was going to clear her mind and try to forget about it for today.

She was about to go through the gate when her phone rang.

With her heart pounding and her knees going weak, she wondered if it was him calling her, even though he had promised not to. Dragging her phone from the pocket of her jogging pants, she went weak with relief to see that it wasn’t him.

But the person wasn’t someone she wanted to talk to either. Securing the air pod in her ears, she answered.

“Janice.” She started jogging, taking the meandering path that led to the neighborhood park.

“You haven’t returned my calls.”

“I have been busy.’

“You have been avoiding me," her sister’s voice was subdued, and Collette felt a prick of something that felt like a guilty conscience. But she had nothing to feel guilty about. She had been going to the altar at church, battling with her conscience and thoughts of the past.

“Okay, fine. I have been avoiding you.” She nodded at a runner she recognized as her neighbor a few houses up. “I need time to think, and I cannot do that with you and your husband pestering me. What do you want from me?”

“Trevor called you?”

She wanted to feel triumph over the turnabout, but suddenly, it did not matter. To her surprise, for the first time since her life had been upended, she was not thinking about the two people who had brought it around.

She did not dare contribute that to what had happened last night, that would have been ludicrous. It would mean exchanging one foolish mistake for an even bigger one.

“Yes.” She had reached the park by now and because of the early morning and the rain which had fallen in torrents last, it was mostly empty, the swings moving lethargically in the stiff wind. She was winded, her breath coming out in puffs.

The top of her jogging suit was clinging to her upper body, and she felt her knees turning weak. Sitting on a bench, she took several deep breaths.

“He wants you back.”

“It’s too late. What do you want me to say Janice?” She was unaccountably angry at the intrusion and wished her sister would leave her to come to a decision on her own.

“I want you to say that you forgive me. I want us to go back to where we were before.”

“Would that be such a good thing?” Collette asked her softly.

She was sitting opposite the pond, and the slow and leisurely movements of the ducks making their way around captured her attention. “The relationship between us was never an equal one. I was the one in awe of you, the sister who wanted to take care of you, and you took advantage of my love many times.

I never said anything because,well,you were Janice—beautiful,poised, and popular. I admired your adventurous spirit and the way you grabbed life in both hands. And I was prepared to fade in the background.

But you were never just satisfied with that, were you? You wanted to humiliate me and prove that you were better, that you could get any man you wanted, including the one I had.” Collette sighed and rubbed at the tension forming at the back of her neck.

Her sleepless night was catching up to her and she wished she had the luxury to go back to bed and just sleep. But she knew that would not be possible. As soon as she closed her eyes last night, memories had chased her.

She had taken a shower last night, but last night in bed, she had smelled him and her nipples were still sore. Her vagina was sensitive. She was aching all over and feeling his mouth on her body.

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