Something about blaming him for having a life before he knew you existed. Trying to think if your timing could have been ANY FUCKING
WORSE
I know, I’m totally in the wrong, he did not do anything wrong and he never has. Jealous asshole was jealous. How can I fix it?
Four messages in quick succession, all from Dana’s phone. The first: This is Rory. Fuck you. You need to grovel a fuck of a lot. Then: This is Vicky. Do not even think of trying to excuse your behavior. Apologize. Next: This is Sharon. Talk to your counselor and figure out why the fuck you did that. Then apologize again. And grovel some more you prick. Finally Dana again: Whatever you do, DO NOT LET HIM LEAVE until you sort this out.
Have you talked to him at all today?
I texted him six times saying I’m sorry. He didn’t answer and now I’m terrified. I’ve been working for fifteen hours haven’t slept what if he left while I was stuck out here. He was hyperventilating a little.
“Mr. Garcia, are you all right?”
“Could you please have someone call the hotel and make sure Andy’s there?”
She looked like she thought he was losing his mind, but she poked her
head out of the trailer and spoke to someone. Victor sat there clutching his phone. After another minute the makeup person – her name is Melissa, say thank you – finished up. “I’ll go see if they’ve heard anything.”
“Thanks Melissa.” Victor closed his eyes, waiting, wondering if his whole life, his whole world, was falling apart.
“Mr. Garcia?” Victor looked at the door. Melissa was there. “Mr. Martin left a message saying he’d have dinner ready for you.”
“Does that mean he’s there?”
“Oh. Yes, he’s there, he’s waiting for you.”
Victor almost cried. He blinked, swallowed, sucked in a breath. “Thank you. I’ll be out of here in a minute.” First the text to Andy: I’m so sorry sweetheart, please forgive me, I’ll figure my shit out. I never meant to or want to hurt you. Please stay. Please don’t leave me. I love you so much.
Then a text to Dana: Thank God he’s still here, I’ll see him in about a half hour. Thank you and the girls for advice, I will follow all of it OXO
Andy read the last text and thought What. He called Dana, who he knew was standing by. “Why does Victor think I might leave him?”
“Well, you haven’t talked to him all day and he hasn’t seen you for twenty-four hours and that’s what you do.”
“The fuck?” He had no idea what she meant.
“Andy, remember back at the beginning when you cut him loose because he’d never had a real relationship before? Your husband is well aware you have a history of leaving. You would not have been single otherwise.” Dana was Andy’s number one fan, and she was squarely on his side in this. That didn’t mean he was perfect. For full disclosure, she added, “Also I may have said don’t let him leave. Meaning don’t let you leave.”
Andy didn’t say anything for half a minute. He was flashing back to the night he’d asked Victor to marry him. Victor had said, later, that he would have asked Andy himself except … . He thought, or was afraid, that I’d get bored. As if that were possible. “Goddammit.”
“How angry are you?”
“Right now? Not very.”
“Good. I don’t think Victor’s angry at all. I think he’s very afraid.”
“Well yeah, if you said that, he probably immediately went to me
packing my bags.” Andy was a little annoyed about that. The thought hadn’t crossed his mind. But fair was fair. Dana had mostly seen him in the ‘failing at love’ stage of life before Victor. He hadn’t, as a rule, talked about those failures seriously. It was so much less painful that way. He sighed. “Do you and Rory ever get into it?”
“Once in a while. Usually about trivial shit, and then somebody makes a joke and we get over it.”
“And then what do you do?”
“Get jiggy.” Andy laughed, as she knew he would. “Is this actually the first time you’ve had a fight?” He made a sound of assent. Dana thought, overdue, but still. Victor’s lack of experience was no excuse for being an asshole. “Look, it’s up to you how to handle it. But if you know what the trigger was, and you know it’s something you can deal with later, maybe skip straight to getting jiggy.”
“I know what the trigger was.”
“Can you deal with it later?”
“How much of a beating did you girls give him?” As soon as he heard all four of them were in the room, Andy had started feeling a little sorry for Victor.
“We kicked him around pretty hard.”
“Then I’ll deal with it later. I’d rather get jiggy.” She snorted. “Thanks for everything chica. Hugs all around.”
“Let us know how it goes.”
“I will.” Andy disconnected. There was time to take Molly for a walk before the caravan returned.
He was set up in their main room when Victor came in. He looked exhausted, hollow-eyed and afraid. “Catnip,” Andy said, “come and hug me now.”
“Oh God.” Victor sort of collapsed into Andy’s arms. “Thank you for staying.”
“I was not going to leave you. Never crossed my mind. The only reason I walked out last night was because you weren’t rational and I was furious.
One of us was going to say something unforgivable.”
“I thought I already did.”
“No, not quite. I mean, some of it was true. You didn’t get my life.”
Andy did not point out that Victor got shot because somebody
