Page 133 of Full Mountie

She pokes me in the side. “I invited him over. I knew what I was getting into once he was here.”

“He hurt you.”

“He hurt himself, more. I really think that somehow along the way, he’s convinced himself that he’s only temporary for you. For us. And he went into our relationship eyes wide open, convinced that was the case, but it got to be too much.”

“That’s crazy.” I pull back and frown down at her when she doesn’t say anything. “Isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I think…maybe not crazy. Not true, of course. We love him.” Her voice drifts on a sigh. “But somehow I don’t think telling him that will be enough.”

Ithinkabout what Beth said all the next day. And when I get off work, instead of going to my house, where Beth headed an hour earlier, I find myself at Hugh’s apartment building.

It’s nothing like Beth’s lovely place. It’s a giant concrete building, probably twenty apartments on each floor. The front door doesn’t close all the way, so even though there is a buzzer system, I don’t need to call up and announce myself.

This is good, because I don’t want him to have any advance warning that I’m here. I’d been prepared to wait until someone came out, but now I don’t need to.

I make my way to the fifth floor and find his unit easily.

I don’t even know if he’s home, but I knock anyway.

There’s a long stretch of nothing, so I knock again. Official-like, so he thinks maybe it’s the landlord. Wonders if there’s a gas leak or something.

I’m not sure it works, and I’m about to take a step back when the door swings open.

We stare at each other for a long beat.

Then I push my way past him, into his apartment, because I’m not taking no for an answer.

“Hey,” he starts to say, but I’m not listening.

I stalk down the short hallway and into the… what should be the living room.

Except it’s empty, save for a weight bench.

Behind me, I hear him sigh. “Sure, come on in.”

“You don’t have any furniture,” I say as I turn back to look at him. This is not how I meant to open the conversation.

“I have a bed,” he says, his words clipped. “Want to bend over it?”

I ignore the jab and wave at a cardboard box in the corner. “You haven’t unpacked.”

“I haven’t spent much time here. And it doesn’t really matter—this place might be temporary.”

I give him an incredulous stare. “Temporary? You already have one foot out of the city?”

“Can you blame me?”

“You can’t fucking leave.”

“Why the hell not?”

I’m yelling now. I can’t dial it back. “Because we need you.”

“You have each other.”

I storm towards him, stopping myself just before I slam into him. “Is this the wedding bullshit again?”

“It’s not bullshit. You have no idea what it was like to watch youlongingfor her. And her right back at you. You have no idea what was going through my mind as I realized I was just a…means to an end.”

---