Page 18 of Abduction
“So you just let it slide?”
“At first, yeah,” she replied, her shoulders sagging slightly. “I...I wanted to think it was just me overthinking it, and at first I did, but the more time it goes on, the more I’m starting to think there might be something to it.”
“Why so?”
“He told me he was going to be waiting for me at home the day that...we met,” she replied, glossing over the part where we had been flirting all afternoon. “But when I got back home, he wasn’t there, and he didn’t reply to any of my messages,” she continued. Her voice was starting to catch now, and it sounded like she was just a few moments away from bursting into tears. Normally I wasn’t any good with handling people in the midst of some major emotion, but I didn’t mind with her. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do. The guy sounded like a scumbag, and, from everything she had told me, I was sure he was fucking around on her.
“And it took him all evening to actually come back to our place,” she added.
“It is in the suburbs,” I pointed out, trying for a joke. “I think I would avoid that, too.”
She managed a smile, though it was obvious it was pained. I didn’t want to push her too hard, but I could tell she was hurting, and something in my chest told me to do what I could to help her. It wasn’t exactly my ballpark, but maybe I could do my good deed for the year with her. Hear her out, give her a chance to see this through some more neutral eyes.
“And when he got back, he was stinking of booze, like it was coming out of his pores,” she continued. “And he was clearly tipsy, at least. But he wouldn’t admit he had been anywhere other than the office, and I don’t know how to get him to come clean about it. I don’t know if he even will. I just can’t think why he would say he had been out at the office when it was clear he’d been drinking, unless he was...”
She trailed off, clearly not even able to put it into words. I could have given her the answer, though I was sure she wouldn’t have liked it much.
“Yeah, you do know why he would do that,” I pointed out. “Because he’s fucking around on you.”
A shock of pain shot across her face, and, as much as I could tell she didn’t want to admit it, she knew I was right. There’s no reason for anyone to act the way he had unless they are trying to cover something up, and he would be stupid not to keep denying it to her face. Maybe he thought he could gaslight her into thinking she was crazy, and get her to accept his obvious affair if he just played his cards right.
“You think so?” she asked, her voice tiny. I nodded. I wanted to put my arm around her, but I knew it would have been an overstep. She needed someone to listen to her right now, not someone to hit on her.
“Yeah, I do,” I replied. “There’s no reason for him to lie to you unless he knows for sure he’s doing something you wouldn’t want him to, as his fiancée.”
She nodded slowly. It was like the weight of it was just sinking in for the first time, the shock of it more than she could take. I didn’t know what kind of friends she had, who were telling her she had nothing to worry about, but she deserved to know the truth.
“He pays for everything, you said, right?” I added, and she nodded.
“Yeah, he does,” she replied. Her head was practically drooping on to her chest by now, her body almost sliding off the bench beside me. I wondered how long this had been going on, how long she’d been doing her best to push down her emotions and pretend like she didn’t see the truth right in front of her face. It would have been enough to drive anyone mad.
“So you don’t have an easy way out of there if you want to take it?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“Yeah, I don’t have anywhere to go, and I don’t even know how I would get my stuff out of there if I did,” she replied. “It’s...I don’t know what I could do.”
“I can help you,” I offered her. I didn’t know where it had come from, but something about the way this woman was looking at me, something about the obvious pain written all over her face, it was enough to make me want to help. She didn’t deserve to go through this alone, especially not with friends who seemed so useless about helping her. She deserved someone to step in and show her she wasn’t on her own in all of this, no matter how much it might have felt like it.
“I—what do you mean?” she asked, furrowing her brow with surprise.
“If you need help moving your stuff out of there, or finding a new place, I can help you,” I added. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to make it happen, but there was no way I would leave her to make it through all of this alone. She needed help. And a part of me wanted nothing more than to do what I could to make it right.
She paused for a moment, considering what I had just told her, and I wondered how long this had been going on. For her to even think about accepting help from someone like me, someone she had just met—the kind of dirtbag who would hit on a woman who was already engaged—she must have been desperate. Things must have been bad.
But, slowly, finally, she shook her head.
“No, I think I’m going to be okay,” she replied. I raised my eyebrows at her.
“You don’t look it.”
She managed to smirk. “Thanks.”
“I don’t mean it like that—”
“I know, I know,” she replied, waving her hand in assurance. “I just...I think I need to give it some time. I don’t want to jump into anything before I’m ready. Before I know for sure what’s going on with him.”
Like she didn’t already.
I nodded. I didn’t want to get in the way of the choice she had made for herself. I thought it was stupid as hell, but she probably knew that. She didn’t need someone telling her she was an idiot for going back to a guy who was clearly fucking around on her.
