“Broken up?” she repeated. “Danny, you know I never mean that!”
“You seemed pretty serious when you keyed my car,” Daniel reminded her. “Or did you forget about that?”
“Well, excuse me for standing up for myself,” Stacy retorted sarcastically. “What am I supposed to do when you don't come home all night?”
“I was at the station,” Daniel reminded her exasperatedly. “Sometimes there are fires at night. I'm the captain, Stacy. I've told you this a hundred times.”
“So I'm paranoid?” Stacy spat. “Obviously not, since you came here to tell me about your other woman!”
“Stacy,” Daniel continued patiently. “I slept with one woman. Once. A year ago when you stormed out on me and said we were done. I didn't cheat on you, but I did sleep with this woman when we weren't together and I didn't see her again before I went to Colorado. When I got back she ran into me at a café and she had a baby with her.”
“Oh, let me guess,” Stacy seethed, “It's yours? If you screw a woman like that, Danny, you've got no idea whose it is. It's probably not yours at all. She's probably just some cheap little gold digger who goes out with every man who shows up on the street.”
A sudden anger rose up in Daniel for Laura and he raised his voice to answer Stacy. “Don't you talk about her like that!” he warned. “She is not cheap. She is not a slut. She is a kind, decent woman that I let down, but not anymore. I have a child now, Stacy. I can't be playing these games with you anymore.”
“Are you dumping me?” Stacy asked him disbelievingly. “Forget it, Danny, because I'm ending this right now. I will not be your piece on the side while you're out screwing every woman you come across ‘fighting fires.’ You go have fun with your little slice and enjoy raising someone else's kid, because I'm done with all of this and I'm done with you.”
“Thank God!” Daniel replied. “I can't believe I put up with you this long. You're paranoid, Stacy and you're insecure and you're childish.”
“You got another woman pregnant!” Stacy hissed. “So yes, I'm insecure.”
“Oh, you love it,” Daniel accused. “From day one, you've been waiting for me to trip up; pushing me and pushing me, just willing me to go over the edge. Well, congratulations! You won. I was with someone else and I didn't regret it for a moment. You were right to be suspicious. I'm a terrible, cheating man.”
Stacy stopped and stared at him and finally stopped her hysterics. She became quiet and collected herself.
“I know we fought a lot, Danny, but I really thought we had something.”
Daniel shook his head. “There might have been a time when we were good for each other, but it was a long time ago.”
The angry young woman let go of her fury and walked over to the door, pulling it open to indicate that Daniel should leave.
“I think you should go, Daniel,” she told him coldly. “This is the last time we have this fight. This time I mean it. We're done.”
For once, Daniel didn't stick around long enough for her to change her mind and he left her apartment quickly. For years, he had put off truly ending things with that girl, from fear or loneliness or duty, he didn't even know any more, but now that it was all over, all he felt was relief and freedom at last.
He felt hopeful, too. He thought of Laura with hopeful expectation, imagining a life with her, not that he could imagine that she'd want him now. After all, he'd knocked her up and left the state for months. She'd been so kind and gracious since he'd returned, but that was because she was the type of woman he'd never encountered before and he wasn't really sure where to go from here.
He called on Sam and Michael for a drink to talk it out with friends who knew him well. He told them about ending things with Stacy.
“Thank the heavens!” Sam sung. “That girl was a nightmare.”
Daniel looked to Michael for his opinion and his other friend nodded too.
“She had some serious issues, Dan.”
“So, what are you going to do about this other girl and her baby?” Sam pressed him. “Are you all just going to play happy family now?”
“I don't know,” Daniel sighed. “I haven't known her long, but she's not like anyone else I've ever met. Maybe I've just been with Stacy too long, I don't know. When you get a woman pregnant and return months later, you expect there to be hell to pay, but she'd just pulled herself together and made a life for herself and when I came back, she didn't ask for anything or blame me for anything. She just invited me to be a part of a family that she'd worked hard to build. You've got to respect that.”