She was just mad, Jason told himself as he waited for her to come back and give him another piece of her mind. He’d fucked up big time, but they both knew from the beginning that he was probably going to do that. Telling himself that she just needed a few minutes to cool off, he stood there, waiting, and when a few minutes turned into thirty minutes, he forced himself to move.
He needed to apologize to her and tell her how much he loved her He hopped over the small picket fence separating their properties and made his way to her window. He was more than ready to beg if that’s what it took to get her to listen to him when the sound of her quiet sobs caught his attention.
“Haley?”
No answer.
He stood there, wondering what the hell he should do. Suddenly crawling into her room and begging her to forgive him didn’t sound like such a good idea anymore. She needed time to think, probably more time than he’d given her.
“I’ll be in my room when you’re ready to talk. So, just yell or call when you’re ready,” Jason said loudly, feeling like a useless idiot and having absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do to fix this. He left, hoping she came to him when she was ready.
Haley spent half the night crying and waiting for Jason to crawl through the window and hold her. When she realized that wasn’t going to happen, she grabbed a pillow and a throw blanket and headed for the living room couch, unable to sleep in her own bed without Jason.
She couldn’t believe how much this hurt, Haley thought, wondering why she ever thought that she could prepare herself for something like this. She knew from the beginning that this probably wasn’t going to last and told herself that it didn’t matter, but she’d been wrong.
In one night, she’d lost everything, her best friend, boyfriend, her virginity, and her heart. On top of that, it appeared that she’d lost a few of her friends, which she really couldn’t care less about if she was going to be honest. There was a reason why she’d kept putting off girl’s night and it had nothing to do with Jason.
They were a part of the old Haley’s life, the pushover version of herself, the Haley that never spoke up for herself and let other people push her around. A few months ago, when they’d let her know that they couldn’t believe that Jason settled for someone like her, she should have cut them out of her life, but she’d hesitated. She didn’t like hurting anyone’s feelings and apparently, Jason didn’t know that about her.
How could he have ever thought that she would do that to him? She could only imagine what they said to him. What she couldn’t understand was why he didn’t talk to her first. He should have told her what they said, asked her why she didn’t want to have sex, but instead, he’d allowed himself to be manipulated into doing something that he should have known was going to hurt her.
He should have…
Done so many things differently, but when it came down to it, this was her fault. She knew better than to fall in love with Jason, and now, there was nothing that she could but hope that having her heart broken didn’t destroy her.
“You’re out of eggs!”
“I don’t care,” Jason said, never taking his eyes away from Haley’s front door.
Around three this morning, he’d realized that he’d fucked up this situation even more by not going to her. He’d spent the next two hours going over every single minute from the night before, trying to figure out exactly when he’d fucked up, and made a list. After he made sure that he hadn’t missed anything, he folded the three-page list, front and back, and stuffed it in his back pocket and came outside to wait for Haley so that he could start apologizing.
He’d contemplated waking her up, but then he’d have one more thing to apologize for, so he settled for waiting on his front step. A half-hour ago, Mitch decided to join him after he’d spotted him waiting outside when he drove by. It hadn’t taken long for the other man to figure out that he’d fucked up.
“Are you going to sit out here all day?” Mitch asked, stepping outside. “I’m starving. Let’s go get something for breakfast. By the time we get back, Haley should be up and you can go grovel.”
Jason stubbornly shook his head. “I’m not leaving until I talk to her. Besides, I’m not hungry.”
“Jesus Christ,” Mitch mumbled, crossing himself.
He ignored Mitch and focused on Haley’s front door. A few minutes later, it opened and Haley stumbled out. Jason was on his feet within seconds and heading towards her. He really wasn’t sure how much longer he would have been able to wait before breaking into her house and begging for her forgiveness.
“Haley, I...” His words trailed off when he spotted the large duffle bag that she was dragging behind her. “What’s going on?”
For the first time in months, Haley’s face didn’t light up when she saw him. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and went back to pulling the bag.
“I’m going away,” she said, sounding sad.
“For how long?” Jason asked, feeling as though his entire world was crashing down around him.
“A week,” Haley said, walking past him as she dragged that damn bag.
A week? No, they couldn’t be apart for a week. That was too much time. A week of thinking about just how badly he’d fucked up and how much better off she was without him was not what they needed. They needed to work this out here and now so he could get on with the groveling.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Haley,” he said, automatically lifting the bag and placing it in her trunk for her when she struggled to pick it up. “Why don’t we go inside and talk this over?”
She shook her head stubbornly. “I can’t. If I don’t go, I’ll be out a thousand dollars.”
He waved that aside. “I’ll reimburse you. Just stay here and let me explain what happened last night.”
