"Travis, please," she said. She covered the distance between them and pressed her hands to his chest. She slid them up to his shoulders and halfway down his arms and back. "Let's just start over. I can do so much better, I know I can. I love you. I can't believe I'm just now saying it because it feels so good. So right. I love you, Travis."
He laughed bitterly and looked up at the ceiling to hide the tears pooling in his eyes. "I'm not willing to trust you right now. I can't be with you anymore. I'm sorry."
She grabbed the front of his shirt. "I know, baby. I know how you feel. I know you think you're doing the right thing for yourself, to protect yourself. But I promise you I will never hurt you again. I swear."
Travis pulled her hands off of him by the wrists and led her to the door. He opened the door and nodded towards the cold, wet night beyond.
Her voice pitched higher in desperation. "You said if I love you nothing else matters! Don't you remember? You said love is the most important. Remember?"
"I remember. Even the great Travis Lanier is wrong sometimes. I'm sorry, Arden. But I need you to go."
She was breathing frantically, tears pouring down her face again. "Okay," she squeaked. "I'll go. You just need time to think, that's all. You think it through and I'll be waiting for you to call me. Okay? I'll wait as long as you need."
Travis shook his head and gritted his teeth. "Please go," he said.
"Okay," she said again. "I love you. I just need you to know that. You take all the time you need. Okay? I love you Travis." She said all of this as she backed out the door. She was still talking when he closed it and slumped back against it, sliding down to the floor. He let his head bang back against the door as he took several deep breaths. Finally he heard Arden's car drive away.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Emma sat across from Arden at a booth in Sweet Nothing's. Arden was grading papers with half of her attention. The other half was trying to talk Emma into moving out of her parents' house and into an apartment with her.
"But I don't get why you would leave your parent's house when your bedroom by itself is better than any apartment in this town," Emma said.
Arden shrugged and pushed her glasses up on her nose. She made some red marks on a paper. "We're big girls. We need to be on our own for a while. Even if it is just a few blocks from our parents."
"Why? Why do we need to be on our own?"
"Because we shouldn't go straight from our parent's home to a husband's. We should be on our own a while and finish growing up. Plus, Travis won't spend the night if I'm living with my parents."
Emma sipped her coffee. "I think I'm plenty grown up, thank you. And I hate to be the one to remind you, but you haven't been dating Travis for three weeks now."
Arden slapped her pencil down on the table and looked at Emma. "I know that. But all of that will change once I've proven to him that I'm committed. Besides, getting our own place is still the right thing to do. What do you think about those apartments over on Riverview Drive."
"I think they're overpriced and the basements flood. You're forgetting, too, that I don't have an income."
"So get a job."
"I don't have time to get a job. I run the ladies quilting circle, the Daughter's of Virtue, the Youth Service Club, and I organize pretty much every potluck and group activity in that church. I volunteer at the nursing home three days a week and at the hospital the other two days. Not to mention the shut-ins who need meals and company and..."
Arden held up her hands. "Okay. Okay. So don't get a job. You can still live with me. You can be, like, my stay-at-home wife and keep house and cook. It'll be great."
Emma laughed at the image. "That's great. But the fact is, I'm perfectly comfortable living with my parents."
"That's right," Arden interrupted. "You're comfortable. Too comfortable. You need to experience what it's like to be completely responsible for yourself with no one else looking out for you. Get a boyfriend. Go on dates that don't involve your parents. Walk around the house in your pajamas and bare feet instead of constantly dolled up looking like Donna Reed."
"Hey! I like how I dress."
"I do too," Arden said. "But why not relax once in a while? You don't have to always be perfect. Sometimes we can just go over to Bixy and go dancing. Or hang out with friends up at Rowdy's. You and me. No parents. What do you say?"
Emma sat back and watched her friend. Arden wasn't acting hysterical anymore. That first week after Travis broke up with her she had called him every evening and stopped by his house several times to check on him and the baby. Travis had gone to Emma and asked her to help get Arden past this. So Emma had tried spending more time with her. She would cry over every little thing and though she didn't talk about Travis constantly, it was clear he was on her mind.