“Thank you.” I clasped both her hands and gave them a quick squeeze. “I promise, I'll call you.” I pressed a quick kiss to her lips before bolting out of the coffee shop to try to ease the blow with Mel. I hoped she wouldn't do anything irrational. My future with Auburn depended on it.
eighteen
“What’s going on Reed?” Mel advanced on me when I'd pulled into the parking spot in front of my building.
“Can we go inside?” I growled, aware of the neighborhood gossips. She seethed as she stomped up the steps. I knew I couldn’t explain anything to her, I didn’t understand it myself.
“I’m sorry,” I offered once we'd crossed the threshold in an effort to keep some sense of peace.
“For getting caught?” She turned, her eyes large and accusing.
“That you had to find out like that.”
“Shove the pity up your ass, Reed. You put everting in jeopardy with that slut. And she's your student! What were you thinking?”
“She's not my student, she's in college.” I defended, lamely.
“So you left me for a college student. I never thought you were that guy, Reed. What's going on in your head?!”
“More than you could fathom,” I grit, resentment evident in every word. She had this all wrong, but I couldn't being myself to tell her why I'd really left. I didn't think I could stand the pity.
“Really? Because it looks like you were only thinking with your dick.” The words dripped with resentment.
“That's not what this is,” I answered. What I wanted to say was that I loved Auburn, I loved her with a love I hadn't even known was possible before her.
“Oh God, you don't think you're the only one, do you?” Mel's cynical laugh radiated in the tension between us. “Girls like her fuck the college quarterback, not poor high school teachers.” Mel's satisfied grin had my blood running cold.
“Mel.” I ground through my teeth, wishing I would have stayed at that coffee shop with Auburn and let Mel throw her tantrum alone. But Mel discovering us had forced me to play the hand I was given, I deserved this for keeping so many secrets for so long.
“Stop. Don't 'Mel' me!” She held a hand out to keep me at a distance. “How long?” She composed herself, the tone of her voice cold, her eyes daggers as she watched me.
“Not long.” I shook my head.
“Tell me how long.” She grit and advanced on me again.
“It's not your fucking business.” Anger filtered into my voice no matter how hard I tried to keep it in check.
“Was this some sort of bullshit mid-life crisis? Did you think you were going to come back to me? Sleep in our bed?”
“No, I didn't think that at all.”
“This started in the spring, didn’t it? You've been so cagey and secretive since you left. I thought maybe I was overreacting when I caught you out in the middle of the day but this... God! How could I have not seen this coming?!”
I said nothing, because she wasn’t wrong. Not about her not seeing it coming, I didn’t see it coming either, not in a million years, but that it had been inevitable. Given the right place and the right time, Auburn and I, I fully believed, were destined to happen.
“When your mom told me you’d asked for her recipe a while back I thought it was weird but I didn’t think much of it beyond that, but when Michelle said that Steph was chattering on about you acting suspicious last week after the writing class–”
“Wait, what?” I lifted my head in confusion.
“Steph said you implied that you were seeing someone when she talked to you last week. When I heard that, I knew I had to know one way or another, just to put my mind at ease. I wanted them to be wrong. I wanted them to be lying, fat, clucking chickens who have nothing better to talk about than other people's business, but you were gone this weekend. I must have driven by your building a dozen times Saturday night waiting for you to come home so we could talk. So what was it–a lover's getaway? Did you shack up in some hotel and fuck her all weekend?”
“I thought we were seeing other people! You made it clear you were moving on! How couldn’t you expect the same from me?” I raged, confused and angrier than I'd ever been. “What happened to you, Mel? You're so bitter.” She said she didn't know who I was anymore, but this selfish, manipulative person wasn't the woman I'd married six years ago either.
“Me? Me?! You've embarrassed me! I have family in this town! Friends! And now they all know you left me to fuck around with some whore!”
“Don't call her that. Don't you ever call her that.” I advanced, my fists clenching with barely contained restraint.