“He said he didn’t want our life anymore.”
The light changed.
I didn’t move until the driver behind me tapped his horn.
Kayla looked out the side window.
“Six years, Amanda. And that was it.”
“He said he didn’t want our life anymore.”
I drove.
No advice.
No defense of Eric.
No attempt to make the sentence less ugly.
Then Kayla said, “I kept waiting to find out what he’d done.”
“And he hadn’t?”
“I kept waiting to find out what he’d done.”
“No.” Her voice dropped. “I just wanted there to be a reason.”
I finally understood why she’d been watching Andrew so closely.
Not because she wanted him.
Because she wanted him to become evidence.
“I just wanted there to be a reason.”
“You wanted to know mine wasn’t different,” I muttered. “If Andrew failed your test, then Eric made sense.”
Kayla looked at me. Then she turned back toward the window.
“Maybe.”
“And if Andrew didn’t?”
She picked at a loose corner of the phone case.
“If Andrew failed your test, then Eric made sense.”
When she answered, her voice was almost too quiet to hear.
“Then maybe it wasn’t relationships.”
I waited.
“Maybe it was just mine.”
I pulled into our driveway and shut off the engine.
Neither of us reached for the doors.
“Then maybe it wasn’t relationships.”
After a minute, Kayla said, “I wasn’t trying to take Andrew from you.” She finally looked at me. “I just needed to know.”
I reached for the door handle, then stopped.
“But being heartbroken explains why you wanted proof.”
Kayla watched me.
“I wasn’t trying to take Andrew from you.”
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“It doesn’t explain why my ‘no’ stopped mattering to you.”
Her hand went still around the phone.
And this time, she didn’t argue.
Inside, Kayla put the ugly robe back on the chair.
“I am sorry,” she said.
I waited.
She didn’t argue.
“Not for being heartbroken. I’m still pretty committed to that.”
She looked at the robe.
“I’m sorry I decided you had to prove your boundary made sense before I’d respect it.”
“Thank you,” I said.
