Chapter 2

He went quiet for a moment, then started backpedaling.

"I can't take it back now, but it doesn't matter. Everyone in that chat is a friend of mine. Nobody's going to bother you."

"Someone already has."

"Then just turn off your friend requests. Easy fix. Besides, those people are keyboard warriors talking trash. It's not like they took a chunk out of you. Don't be so thin-skinned."

I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

He must have thought he'd won me over, because he let out a breath and tossed me another line of explanation like it was a favor.

"Fay Mason and I are just traveling together, nothing more. Every room I booked is a twin, two beds. Don't read into it."

Two beds?

I laughed all at once.

"Louis, I'm not reading into it. I haven't read enough into it."

His face darkened in an instant.

"What's that supposed to mean? A man and a woman can't just be friends? Can your mind be any filthier?"

"And another thing. Even if Fay and I did have something going on, what business is that of yours, Dorothy?"

My laugh turned bitter.

"If she weren't married, then no, it'd be none of my business."

Fay falls in love, he confesses to me.

Fay breaks up with someone, he wants to break up with me.

Fay announces her engagement, he gets blackout drunk and proposes to me.

Fay posts on her feed that she's pregnant, and the next thing I know he's turning to me saying, Dorothy, let's have a baby.

One after another, laid out plainly in front of me.

But I kept my eyes shut and walked forward anyway, telling myself that once we married, he'd settle down.

I told myself that once we married, he'd settle down.

But then Fay got divorced again.

Lucky me, this time I hadn't married him yet.

Louis stared at me coldly.

"You're just looking for trouble."

He was about to say more when the doorbell rang.

I walked over and pulled the door open.

Fay stood in the doorway dragging her suitcase, soaked to the skin, her face bloodless.

She looked past me, straight at Louis, her voice dropping low.

"Louis, I don't have a home anymore."

Before she'd finished, someone shoved me aside, and the small of my back slammed hard into the shoe cabinet.

"Dorothy, go make ginger tea."

I looked up and saw Louis carrying Fay toward the bathroom, so frantic he'd kicked off one of his slippers.

"Lots of brown sugar, easy on the ginger, or Fay won't be able to drink it."

When I didn't answer, he glanced back, irritated.

"Fay's health is fragile. Getting caught in the rain could bring on pneumonia. Why aren't you moving?"

Getting caught in the rain brings on pneumonia?

But the last time I brought documents to his hospital in a downpour, my clothes and shoes were soaked through, and I stood shivering in his office from the cold.

Even his assistant couldn't stand to watch and offered to fetch me something dry to change into.

He just waved a hand.

"No need. It's summer, a little rain won't hurt. My girlfriend isn't that delicate."

So it wasn't that I wasn't delicate.

It was that he didn't care.

"No."

Louis's face went black.

"We have a guest in the house. This is how you treat a guest?"

I ignored him, held my back, and walked to the couch to sit down, then turned on the TV.

"Dorothy, am I intruding on the two of you?"

I didn't even turn around.

"If you know you're intruding, why did you come?"

"I didn't want to. But it's pouring out there, I just finished the divorce paperwork and had nowhere to go... and Louis never came to take me to the airport."

"Does Seattle not have a subway? Or can you not get a cab to the airport?"

Fay choked up, then asked Louis to put her down.

"I should just go."

That one line set Louis off completely.

He hurled a cup, and the TV screen shattered instantly.

"Get up!"

Louis yanked me to my feet, his hand clamped on my shoulder, his eyes full of disappointment.

"Rideshare drivers are a mixed bunch. It's not safe at all for a single woman to be catching cabs alone."

"You're a woman too. Why can't you put yourself in her shoes?"

Not safe?

Didn't I take a cab home by myself every single time I worked late?

I tried to twist free, but he clamped down harder.

"That hurts!"

He froze, then let go all at once.

He drew a few deep breaths, forcing down his anger.

"Come on, be good. Apologize to Fay."

"Why should I apologize? What did I say that was wrong?"

My voice started to shake.

"She's divorced. She can go back to her parents' place, she can live in the villa her ex gave her!"

"What gives her the right to come to my home? What gives her the right to have you take her off on some getaway?"

"She's the one who should apologize! She's the one with no sense of boundaries! She's the one who doesn't know better!"

Crack!

My face burned.

I moved to hit him back on instinct, but he shoved me down into the couch.

My ears rang, and then a crushing exhaustion swept over everything.

I didn't have it in me for a cold war, or for another fight.

"Let's break up."