A soft knock had him looking up and when he saw Kathy standing in the doorway, he blinked, sure he was hallucinating. When she didn’t disappear, he stood. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you and it couldn’t wait.” She came into the room and closed the door behind her.
The serious look on her face scared him. In his gut, he knew he was losing his weekend with her. “What is it?”
She moved forward slowly and set his keys on his desk. “This isn’t working. Let me know what I owe you for the bed and breakfast. You probably won’t be able to get your deposit back.”
He stared at the keys for a full minute and processed what she said. Then it finally sank in. “You’re breaking up with me?”
She nodded and backed away.
“What the hell happened?” His voice was a little louder than he’d intended, but what the fuck had she expected?
Her eyes widened as she looked at him. “Look, I don’t want a scene. I promised you I wouldn’t just disappear like I did last time. So I’m saying good-bye.”
She reached for the door.
“That’s all I get? You swing by my office to be sure there won’t be a scene. You don’t offer me any explanation. Just drop my fucking key and say good-bye? What the hell is that?” He rounded his desk to stop her.
She spun before opening the door. “You said things were different and as much as we want them to be, they’re not.”
“What are you talking about?”
He watched as she took a deep, halting, shaky breath, sure she’d give him something, some information that he could refute. Instead she licked her lips and then pressed them together before speaking. “I wish you could understand how hard just doing this much was for me. Yes, it was a total cop-out to come while you were at work because I knew you wouldn’t cause a scene here, but I can’t do this. Please just let me go.”
Her eyes were so sad and scared, he couldn’t push her, no matter how much he wanted to. “I’ll call you later. This isn’t over.”
She opened the door. “Yes it is. It has to be.”
And she walked out.
Kevin stared after her for a long time and tried to figure out what he could’ve done to screw up. They’d texted yesterday before his meeting with Marnie. They hadn’t had any contact since then. He searched his brain and came up empty.
Then he went back to work. He accepted that maybe he’d lose part of his weekend away with Kathy, but this was a hiccup, a bump in the road. He’d figure out what had upset her and they’d fix it. She was overreacting to something simple. It had to be.
They weren’t over. No way.
It took all afternoon to write the few e-mails he had. His focus was all over the place. He couldn’t get Kathy’s eyes out of his head. He’d never seen them so completely despondent. As much as he wanted to dismiss what she’d said, he knew he couldn’t. When he left the office, he went straight to her apartment. No lights were on, but he rang anyway. Then he tried her phone. Voice mail.
“Kathy, we need to talk. I gave you the afternoon to calm down. Now I deserve an explanation. I’m at your place. Where are you?”
He went back and sat in his car and waited. He drove by the flower shop, saw that it was closed, lights off, and went back to her apartment. He called again. As the phone rang in his ear, he expected her voice mail again because she was clearly avoiding him and any confrontation.
“Stop calling me.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
He swallowed and his brain scrambled to figure out what to say. He hadn’t considered that she’d answer. “Please talk to me. We can fix this.”
“No, we can’t. It’s over.”
“You can’t just say that and not give me a reason or anything.”
“I did give you a reason. You weren’t listening. Good-bye, Kevin.” Then she disconnected.
As he drove to the store to grab some beer and a bottle of whiskey, he replayed the conversation in his office. As far as reasons went, what she’d offered was weak as fuck. What she’d said made no sense and now he was getting pissed off. He paid for his purchase and texted Jimmy to say he was on his way over to get drunk.
He’d followed his younger brothers’ advice to get the girl and it had seemed like it worked, but something had fallen apart. Maybe Jimmy had some words of wisdom. After parking near Jimmy’s house, he grabbed his liquor and went up the stairs. Jimmy met him at the front door.
“What happened?”
“I don’t even fucking know,” Kevin answered.
They went into the living room and sat on the couch. Kevin handed Jimmy a beer, and they both twisted the caps off the bottles. “Moira home?”
“Nope.”
Kevin downed half the bottle and prayed for clarity. “Things have been good, man. More than good. We were supposed to go away this weekend. We’ve been dealing with all of the shit from the past and handling it.” He gulped more. At least he’d thought they’d been handling it. “My hours at work have been rough, but even that, we’ve been dealing with.”
“So what happened?” As usual, Jimmy nursed his beer as he listened.
“She showed up at my office today, slapped my apartment keys on my desk, and said, ‘It’s over.’” He twisted the cap off the whiskey and drank straight from the bottle.
“Wait. What keys?” Jimmy scooted forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “You didn’t say it was so serious that you were swapping keys.”
Kevin finished his beer and opened another. “We didn’t swap.
