Page 26 of A Reel Christmas in Romance
Jack led Marianne backacross the square and into Della’s Diner, holding her hand the whole way. It seemed the best place for the conversation they were about to have. No matter how badly she took his confession, she didn’t seem the type to make a scene in public.
Except, now he thought about it, isn’t that what always happened in movies? The angry or betrayed or jilted woman screamed at the man who’d done her wrong in the middle of a restaurant, didn’t she? And then, more often than not, she slapped him, or threw a drink in his face, or dumped her dinner into his lap. Sometimes all three.
He still had to tell her.
“Marianne, I need to tell you something.”
She wasn’t angry yet, just confused. “Yeah, you do, but I have no idea what.”
He resisted the urge to say something clever like, “That’s because I haven’t told you yet.” There was no point in riling her up more than she was about to be once he told her the truth. “You’re probably wondering why I’m wearing a red carnation,” he began. She just glared at him; clearly the anger was beginning to bubble up. “Right. It’s because you’re supposed to meet me, except now you don’t have to go to the airport.”
Confusion took the place of anger again in her eyes. “No riddles, please, Jack.”
He took a deep breath. No more hesitating, it was now or never. He extended a hand to her. “I think it’s time we were properly introduced. Hello, Esme. I’m the Duck-Man.”
For a moment or two, she just stared at him, looking down at his hand, then back up to meet his eyes. She blinked, blinked again, opened and closed her mouth several times. And then she yelped – there was no other word for it. He hadn’t thought a human being could make a sound that high-pitched. Everyone in the diner turned to look at her. She took no notice; she was looking at him, only at him, and there were so many emotions shifting back and forth in her eyes that he couldn’t begin to follow them.
“I’m sorry, Marianne. I never meant – it wasn’t supposed to – I’m sorry.” What could he say? There was no logic, no argument, nothing that would explain or justify his lies to her. “I’ll go. I didn’t want – I don’t want to hurt you. I just – I never meant to get involved, I wasn’t supposed to even talk to you at all, and I went and fell for you, and now here we are.”
She was still staring, opening and closing her mouth again, clearly trying to come up with words to express the hundred different things she had to be feeling. But she couldn’t find them, and, finally, she just stood up and turned to leave.
“Marianne. Please. You don’t have to listen to me. You don’t even have to take the chocolates.” He pulled a manila envelope out of his jacket, the envelope that contained a printout of his report, and put it on the table. “Just take that, and read it, and it’ll make sense. I hope. And I’m sorry. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am.”
She looked down at the envelope, picked it up carefully, as though it might explode at any moment, and then she walked away. Jack didn’t have the heart to turn around and watch her head out of the diner, and out of his life for good.
