Even the serious-faced Warden Tenn looked pleased, or maybe relieved, by my response. I found myself really hoping that I could help them, even though I doubted that I could. Tasha was right. Getting an established physician to give up their current position to go live and work on some remote prison planet would be a very tough sell.
After ending the call with them, I finished my halo-halo. Once that was done, I didn’t really have any reason to linger around the food court area. Med bay management had let me go a little early on my last day, and I now found myself at loose ends.
I should probably just head home. Catch up on laundry, tidy a bit.
Bryson was always bugging me about taming my mess. Though, really, I didn’t consider it a mess at all. It was just mystuff. Ilovedstuff. Decorative pillows and millions of mugs and house plants I could never seem to keep alive for more than two weeks.
Maybe, if I straightened up a bit, I’d reward myself by buying a new throw blanket to add to my cozy collection. Cheered by that thought, I tossed my empty cup and headed back to our Elora Station apartment.
As soon as I opened the door, I heard it.
Moaning. Panting.Grunting.
I would have assumed Bryson was watching loud porn if I couldn’t also hear the telltale squeaking of our bedframe shuddering in time with the voices. One of which was Bryson’s. I stood frozen in the doorway, time suddenly seeming to halt, then swirl rapidly around me. My heart stuttered, like someone had just come at it with a weedwhacker.
Part of me wanted to close the door and walk right back out as if I’d never come in here at all.
I told that part to kindly keep her cowardly opinions to herself. Because the bigger part, the real Lualhati, obviously had some shit to take care of now.
I squared my shoulders and slammed the apartment door. Slammed ithard.
The loud noises – the moaning, the squeaking – stopped at once. Now, all I could hear was heavy breathing interspersed with furiously hissed whispers. I remained at the entrance to the apartment, giving them some time to prepare themselves that they probably didn’t deserve, because I was a high-road-taking-bitch like that.
Less than sixty seconds later, a haphazardly dressed woman came careening out of the bedroom, her face scarlet. I stepped neatly aside and gave her a sardonicafter yougesture, allowing her access to the apartment door. She fled through it without saying a word. I closed it after her.
When I turned around again, Bryson was there, shirtless with a pair of sweatpants slung low on his hips, his hair mussed. I stared at him, stared at the man I’d been with for more than five years, and waited for the hurt. Waited for the tears.
They never came.
Instead, I just felt exhausted. Empty. Like I’d poured half a decade of my life, of myself, into this man. And what the hell did I have to show for it?
He never even bought me a ring. He always said he would. One day.
If he had bought me one, I would have chucked it at his head right about now. Maybe that would jolt me out of this terrible, draining numbness.
“I can explain,” he said, taking a step towards me.
Ah. Well,thatcertainly helped with the numbness. My skin heated with anger.
“Explain?” I repeated in disbelief. “Yeah. Sure. Go ahead and explain how you ended up vigorously humping some random in our bed.Ourbed!”
“She isn’t ‘some random,’” he groused. “I wouldn’t go behind your back for a meaningless hook-up with a stranger.” He crossed his arms and had the gall to look disappointed in me. “Give me a little more credit than that.”
Lord have mercy. My head was about to explode.
“Great. You get credit for having a meaningful affair, I guess? Hooray for you!”
I really did wish I had a ring to throw at his stupid face. Maybe I could use one of my sadly decaying houseplants instead. The soil-filled pot would have a lot more heft than a dinky little band of metal.
“What am I supposed to say, Lu?”
“Don’t call me Lu,” I gritted out. I hated when he shortened my name.
“You’re always at work,” he went on as if I hadn’t spoken.
“Always…Always at work?!” I sputtered. “Always at the job I literally just quit so that I could focus on us?”
His gaze shifted away. Apparently, there was something very interesting on the perfectly smooth metal of the floor that required all of his attention.
