Page 63 of The Cabin

“It’s Natalie.” Oh, that is not good. That is not good at all.

“What do we do?”

His expression is pained when he looks at me. “I don’t know. She already knows I’m here, I can’t just pretend I’m not. Even if I could fake being out on a hike, she’s gonna wait. She drove all the way up here.”

“We could at least take a walk, buy some more time, come up with a plan?”

“She’s already too close, she would see us leave.” I peek through the window and whip back as fast as I can. I’m trying to think, but my brain is mush. I know he doesn’t want to see her. She’s awful to him. He’s made such a beautiful place for himself up here, she shouldn’t taint that. But how can I possibly keep her out? And at some level, they do kind of have to talk in hopes of her signing the papers…

“I’m going to have to talk to her.”

“Grayson, I don’t –”

“I don’t have a choice, Sol.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

He studies me. “No. But I don’t want you getting dragged into her bullshit either.”

“I don’t care about that, I just wanna support you.”

His eyes soften. “Will you just wait in the bedroom? I’ll try and get rid of her as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” I nod, “good luck. If you need anything, I’m just a few feet away.” He gives me a half smile and I turn to give him his space.

If Brian showed up here right now I’d be horrified. Mortified. I would freeze. I know I would. I am growing, but that is for big, hundred-year-old sycamore people, not baby dandelion people. Eventually I’ll spread my roots, let my seeds fly in the wind and find new places to grow. But not today. I’m not ready for that yet. And I doubt Grayson is ready for that either.

I have to make the decision on whether or not I try my best to be as far away as possible and block my hearing or if I want to make sure I hear everything. I would normally feel like that’s a huge invasion of privacy, but because of what Grayson told me about Natalie…it might be a good idea to have someone listening. I’ll just sit by the door, keep an ear out for anything that sounds like it's escalating to a weird place, and that’s it.

I definitely hear when the door opens and she comes in. Their voices are just a muffled sound coming from that direction. That’s even better, some privacy and I’ll only be listening if she starts yelling or something.

Although, she didn’t just yell. She’d cry and manipulate and guilt trip and shove. I wouldn’t hear any of those things if she did them quietly enough.

I feel very unprepared for something like this. And, like, what is my role here? Sassy roommate? Girl who saw stars because of him this morning?

I slide the door to Grayson’s bedroom open as slowly and quietly as possible. I can’t see them, but I can hear them now.

Natalie scoffs and cackles, “Oh, good one, Grayson. Always playing the victim.”

“Natalie, I’m just asking that you go back home.”

“My family owns this cabin. I am home!” Her voice is so shrill.

“Just go back to New York. We can talk later.”

There’s a sound like a heel clicking on the floor and I tense. “I am not leaving here until you take all of this back and give me what I want.”

“I already signed the papers, Nat, let’s just move on.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’ve signed the papers. I said my vows. I’m not breaking that. I am your wife and you owe me a family!” There’s more clicking. I’m assuming she’s getting closer to him.

“I know you want a family, but I’m not going to be a part of it.” I have so much respect for how he’s communicating. As we’ve seen, I’m not very delicate in expressing my thoughts.

I just can’t understand how such a good man married someone like her. Well… I guess I can understand because the same thing happened to me in reverse.

“Like hell you aren’t! You’re going to take me in your bedroom and you’re going to fuck me and you’re going to come inside me. And we’ll do it over and over until I have a positive pregnancy test in my hand.” She is vicious and nasty and I feel sick listening to her. It is so much worse hearing it in person. And it was already vomit inducing hearing Grayson talk about it.

“I’m asking you to please leave, Natalie.” My heart is simultaneously in my throat and squeezing with sympathy.

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