Brett looks to the door and gets to his feet, looking angry. “This has gone on for long enough now Opal. It’s really not normal behavior. I’m going to go and have a word with this creep.”
Jumping up, I catch his wrist. “Please don’t do that,” I say. “It’ll only make it worse.”
“He’s obsessed with you Opal and it has to stop,” Brett argues. “This Gary guy is mentally unbalanced or something.”
“He’s harmless,” I reassure him. “He just doesn’t get the hint. Eventually, he’ll move on. I’ll talk to him, make him see there’s no chance for us.” I wrap my arms around Brett’s waist. “Don’t ruin tonight by going after Gary.”
“Fine.” Brett sighs, wrapping his arms around me and kissing the top of my head. “Besides, I kind of get where the guy is coming from. If I lost you, I wouldn’t be ready to give you up without a fight either.”
His words make me feel warm inside and the decision about whether or not to ask him to stay over tonight is an easy one now. Who needs sleep anyway? “Do you want to stay over tonight?” I ask. “Rita will be going to work straight from her boyfriend’s place and we’ll have the place to ourselves.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Brett gives me a wink.
I smile up at him and disentangle myself from his arms. I take our empty glasses to the kitchen. Then I pick up Gary’s note and drop it into the waste paper basket without reading it. I go back to Brett. Smiling, I take his hand and lead him to the bedroom.
It’s not long before all thoughts of Gary are gone from both of our minds.
The car pulls up outside of my apartment building and I turn in my seat and kiss Brett. “Good night,” I say. “Thank you for dinner. It was lovely.”
We have been back to the little Italian place where we went the night we decided to give our relationship a chance. I suppose that night was our first date, because we can’t really count getting caught rolling around together in the sand bunker at the golf course as a date. If the waiter at the restaurant remembered that on our last visit we had over stayed our welcome, he hadn’t mentioned it. And we have made sure to leave at least an hour before the place was due to close.
“You’re welcome. How about I come up and you can thank me another way?” Brett winks. He knows I have the apartment to myself again tonight.
Normally, I would have jumped at the chance for him to come upstairs with me, but ever since that first Sunday night when he dropped me off at home, I have stuck to Sunday night being the one night we spend apart.
It feels like that way, it’s easier to draw a line between Opal and Brett, the loved up couple who can’t keep their hands off each other, to Opal and Brett who work together and are completely professional the whole time.
“I’d love that, but I can’t unfortunately,” I say. “My boss is a real dick and Monday mornings are always the worst.”
“Your boss is a dick, huh?” Brett asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, he’s the worst.” I grin. “He won’t let me make love to him on his desk or anything.” I open the door and get out of the car, grinning to myself.
“Hey Opal,” Brett calls.
I’m digging in my purse for my keys. I turn back.
“He sounds like a total asshole,” Brett exclaims.
I laugh as I find my keys and open the door. I wave to Brett and the car pulls away from the curb. I step inside of the building and head for the stairs as the door closes behind me. I stop abruptly when I see Gary sitting on the second step from the bottom.
“What the hell are you doing here Gary?” I ask, sighing.
Gary jumps to his feet.
I take a step back when I see how angry he looks.
“I’m waiting for you obviously,” he says. “I came to see you so we could talk, but you weren’t home. I did the good guy thing and waited for you, and what do I see? You coming home at this hour, smelling of wine, in a car with some guy. So? What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Go home Gary,” I say, refusing to take the bait and have an argument with him here.
“Go home? That’s all you have to say? Dammit, Opal. You’re running around town with some other guy, betraying me, and that’s all you can say?”
“How the hell am I betraying you?” I snap, no longer able to bite my tongue.
“We’re taking a break because you said you needed some space. I get that. But you seeing other guys was never part of the deal!” he shouts. “Who is he anyway?”
“Gary, we’re not taking a break. We’re over. What part of that don’t you understand? This whole break thing is just something you’ve cooked up in your head because you choose to ignore the fact that we are over.”
“No Opal, you choose to ignore the fact that we’re soul mates and that we’re meant to be together. What can I say to make you see that?”
I’m starting to think Brett is right about Gary. His obsession is scary to witness this way, and I’m thinking maybe I should have let Brett have a word with him the other night when he wanted to. Whatever I decide to do to fix this thing long term, right now, I am done with talking to Gary. Maybe I’ll see about getting a restraining order or something. Or maybe I’ll move to China – it’s so big there, surely he’ll never find me.
I shake my head and step around him.
As my foot goes towards the bottom
