Chapter 67
ETHAN.
“Bro, sit your ass down,” Jared whines when I pace past his TV again, blocking his view of his favorite football match. “I did warn you about this. I don’t understand why my house is the converging point for you losers.”
“Go to hell, man,” Neil calls out from the kitchen, ransacking Jared’s fridge for food as well. If he’d asked, I could have easily told him the fridge would be empty. And the cupboards as well. Jared isn’t a homely man.
I halt in my pacing, groaning when my call goes straight to voicemail. Of course, I had been silly enough to think that she’d gone home. I had returned hours after she did and it’d been clear that she never returned to the house.
I pull down the phone and gloss through my contact list. I hit the call button on Anna’s number, and it dials for a while—and goes straight to voicemail too. I collapse into the chair, angry and frustrated. Yes, I took way too long to tell her. It’s my fault, and I shouldn’t have let it drag on for so long. I shouldn’t have lied so much to keep the truth of my foolishness hidden.
Maybe she’d be less mad.
I don’t even know how to apologize to her. I’m terrible with words. Usually, it’d be easier to shove a cheque or a shopping bag filled with designer items into any woman’s hand to get back in their good graces, but May isn’t in the least interested in any of the things I have to give her.
On the second ring, Anna picks up. “Oh, hi Ethan,” she says, almost breathlessly in her tiny voice that always sounds welcoming, and I instantly know May hasn’t told her a thing. “How are you doing? Are you both back from Italy?”
I guess that answers my question about whether May was at Anna’s apartment. No. Then where in the world could she be?
“Hi, Anna,” I start, frowning when Neil suddenly pokes his head out of the kitchen. I turn away, walking to the ceiling-to-floor window off to the side for privacy. “Ah—yes, we’re back. I was hoping May was over at your place.”
“Why—you two had a fight?”
I shift uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Yes. I lied to her about—”
Anna chuckles. “You’ve put a noose around your neck right there, Ethan. If there’s one thing May will not stand for, it’s lies. I could speak to her on your behalf, plead your case, but we both know how headstrong May is and while I am happy to do so right now, I’m a little occupied, packing up.”
“Packing?”
“Yeah,” Anna sighs. “I got a new apartment, and since Sean and I are walking through a divorce, I thought it would be—”
“Divorce?” I echo. Just how much has happened since we left? Steering the conversation back to its start, I ask, “I’ve been trying to reach her for some time now. She didn’t come home. Do you have any idea where I might be able to…?”
“Right. She’s at Ginny’s. She goes there whenever she needs a place to hide or think. But I’d start at her job first.” A childish coo and then, “Finn, don’t touch that. Ethan, I have to go. Some other time, maybe?” Anna hangs up before I can respond and after a couple of minutes, I get a message from her for two locations. Swiping my keys off the center table, I race out the door.
“You found her?!” I hear Jared yell after me, but I’m already hopping into my car and revving the engine.
****
MAY.
Sniffling, I head to the door, wiping my puffy eyes with the back of my hand. The doorbell rings again and again, and I quicken my pace, tying my robe tightly around me. Without peering into the keyhole, I unlock the door, pulling it open.
Then I proceed to shut it back in his face. Only, he doesn’t let me. He wedges his foot between the door and its frame, wincing when I hit the door against his foot. How did he even find me here? Right. Anna.
“Now you’re just being annoying, May. Open the damned door.”
I’m being annoying? My arms tremble as I try to hold the door in place, but Ethan is way stronger than I am and it takes a few minutes of struggling before the door gives. I stand behind it, hugging my chest and I fix my blurred gaze on the ground. “Please leave. I can’t and don’t want to talk to you right now.”
Ethan shuts Ginny’s door behind him and leans against it. “It was never my intention to hurt your feelings. I’m sorry. I really am. Grandma had introduced you to me out of nowhere and I was getting married to a stranger. I heard you tell me things about yourself, and even if it was silly, I believed you without needing proof. I looked into your eyes and knew you weren’t lying. But I grew up in an environment where trust is not an option, and I constantly had to keep my guard up. None of these is a justification for what I did, but I couldn’t help it. I hated lying to you, May.”
I turn around to hide my tears. I don’t like being mad at Ethan. I hate fighting with him. Or having this argument. It’s just…we’ve been married for months. We’ve built this little world of ours. I go to work, he goes to work. We both share the bills because I don’t want to burden him with all the expenses since I am in a place where I can assist. It’s just odd. I can reconcile everything I’ve seen with who I have come to know. Who I thought he was. It doesn’t happen immediately—and while I suppose I can start to learn, I just need to be in the right headspace to do that.