Her Last Love Affair: The Final Journey (4 page)

“
Well,
I was awake,” he sighed, sitting upright. “I figured I’d be back before you
missed me.”

“
Oh,”
she chuckled. “Sneaking out, huh?”

He laughed in reply, pushing himself to his feet. “Not
exactly,” he responded.

“
Well,
why don’t you wait for me?” she suggested, jumping up from the couch. “I’ll get
some clothes on and we can grab a late dinner or go to a movie, or something.”

Reece didn’t reply quickly and his laughter slipped
away. He paused in his movement for the door. “That sounds nice,” he said not
quite convincingly enough. “While you’re getting ready, I’ll just run to my
place.”

Allie cocked her head, amused by his attempt to put
her off. “You don’t want me to come with you?” she noted. “You got a wife
hiding at home?” she joked.

He laughed at the suggestion, shaking his head. “Of
course not,” he told her.

“
So,
what’s the problem?”

“
No
problem,” he insisted. “I only want to grab some clothes, I won’t be long.”

“
And
you have to go and get some clothes in the middle of the night?” Allie asked,
her tone becoming more serious, as were her questions.

Sighing, Reece moved toward her. “Look,” he said
softly, smiling. “We’ve been in this apartment for days. I’ve got nothing clean
to wear and, at some point, we’re going to need to go out and get some food,
because right now you have a packet of dried pasta and a half loaf of moldy
bread.”

“
I
can’t cook anyway,” she replied dismissively.

With a bemused roll of his eyes, Reece reached forward
and brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. “I can,” he countered.

She gestured with her thumb, as though she were
hitchhiking, at the coffee table behind her. On it sat two pizza boxes and an
assortment of takeout cartons. “We’ve been managing,” she quipped.

Allowing his hand to drop from her face, he nodded.
“Yeah, and I don’t think that crap is doing you any good,” he responded in
kind.

“
I
just don’t understand why you have to go right now,” Allie said, avoiding his
statement and returning to the topic that was actually bothering her. “If you
come back to bed, I’ll give you a good reason to wait until morning,” she
suggested, wriggling her eyebrows.

“
Look,
Allie,” he replied. “I’ll be gone for an hour at the most, there’s really no
need to make a big deal out of this.” As he spoke, he took a step back.

Her brow creasing, as she studied him closely, Allie
ran her fingers through her silky, shoulder-length hair. “I’m not making a big
deal out of it,” she insisted. “I just don’t understand why you can’t wait five
minutes, so I can come with you.”

“
I’ll
be back faster if I go alone,” he quickly replied, taking another step
backward, but keeping his face to her.

“
Reece,
are you hiding something?” she blurted.

“
No,”
he scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just need to get some clean clothes.” He
was beginning to get frustrated, and as he took another step back, he reached
behind him and blindly grasped the doorknob. “In an hour, I’ll be back and this
will seem like a such a stupid argument,” he huffed.

“
I’m
not arguing,” Allie corrected him, even though she knew there was an element of
‘spoiling for a fight’ to her method of questioning him. And a part of her knew
she was being childish in insisting on going with him. However, there was
something so adamant in his refusal that had prodded her suspicion, and that
was not something she’d be able to dismiss as immature neediness on her part.
She knew him too well, knew that he was a lousy liar, and could clearly see
that he wanted to keep her away from his home – the question was why.

“
All
right,” he relented. “This discussion will seem stupid,” he offered, rewording
and reaffirming his opinion.

Striding forward, Allie stretched out her arm. Her
hand shot over his shoulder, landing palm down against the door in an attempt
to keep it closed. She was aware that he was physically much stronger than her,
so it wasn’t about actually preventing him from opening the door. However, she
hoped that by making her desire clear, he would do the gentlemanly thing and
respect her wishes.

“
Allie,”
he groaned, shaking his head. “For God’s sake.” His fingers, slipped from the
doorknob and he placed both hands on her towel-covered waist. “All I want to do
is get some clean clothes.”

“
Then,
why did you come over so shifty when I asked to go with you?” she demanded.

“
Why
won’t you let me out of your sight for two seconds?” he snapped. The moment the
words were out of his mouth, his face fell. He wished he could take it back. “I
didn’t mean that,” he sighed, shaking his head. “It’s just...” he added.

“
I’m
smothering you?” Allie offered, her hands darting to his and prizing them away
from her body.

“
No,”
he stated. “That’s not it at all.”

“
You
think I’m being too clingy?” she added.

“
No,”
he repeated. “Well,” he hedged. “Maybe, but I’ve been clingy, too.” He made a
move for her as she stepped back.
“
Allie, I feel it as well,” he
reasoned. “That desire to be near you.”

Unmoving, Allie remained silent. She could see the
sincerity in his eyes, which made it even more difficult for her to get her head
around his sudden conviction to leave. If he felt the way she felt, why was he
determined to go back to his place without her.

“
Allie,”
he coaxed softly, “come on.”

Nibbling on her lower lip, Allie nodded. “Okay,” she
offered, her voice cracking slightly. “If you want to go; go ahead.”

“
It’s
not like that,” he groaned. “I need something to wear, that’s all.”

“
Uh
huh,” Allie skeptically responded.

Reece heard the doubt in her tone, but didn’t have the
strength or inclination to question her further. Instead, he turned for the
door and resumed his attempt to open it. “Listen, I’ll be back in an hour or
so,” he told her. “We can talk about this then, all right?”

“
Sure,”
Allie agreed halfheartedly.

“
I
don’t know what’s going through your mind,” he added, as he pulled the door
open and placed one foot across the threshold. “But you’re wrong.”

“
You
can’t say that if you don’t know what I’m thinking,” she responded, following
him to the doorway. She didn’t try to stop him, she just watched him leave,
standing with her arms folded beneath her breasts.

“
I
can tell by the look on your face that you’re thinking something bad,” he
informed her. “This is me we’re talking about,” he added. “You know me.” With
that, he closed the door quietly behind him.

“
I
did know you,” Allie muttered to herself.

She’d known him when he was in his late teens and
stayed in touch into his early twenties. Beyond that, she wasn’t aware of
anything he’d done or been. He’d seemed the same to her: charming, funny,
incredibly handsome and seemingly perfect. And yet, what did she really know
about him? How much time had they spent talking about him; what he’d been doing
in the ten years they hadn’t seen or heard from each other? The answer, Allie
quickly realized, was that they hadn’t.

At no point had they spoken about his life. Mostly,
they’d talked about nonsense; occasionally they reminisced about old times; and
even more infrequently, he’d asked her about her career. Never had he mentioned
his life; not his job, his friends, girlfriends, places he’d been, people he’d
met – not one word had been spoken on those topics.

Allie hadn’t given any of these things a second’s
thought. Her brain had been too fogged with sexual pleasure and the desire for
more of it to realize that they hadn’t discussed anything of importance. Now,
she wondered whether Reece had deliberately not spoken of his life, because he
had something to hide. Her assertion that he had a wife had been a joke, but
after some thought, she noted that it wasn’t such a ridiculous supposition at
all. Maybe he was married, at the very least he may have a girlfriend. After
all, he was an incredibly good-looking guy, it was highly likely that he was in
a relationship.

“Oh, God,” Allie muttered, moving numbly back to the
couch and dropping into the corner of it. “Oh, shit,” she whispered. Surely,
she told herself, that was the only explanation. He didn’t want her to go with
him, because his wife or some live-in-lover would be there. Although how he’d
managed to explain away his absence for several days, she couldn’t account for.
“No,” she breathed, shaking her head. This was Reece; she may not have seen him
for the better part of ten years, but people don’t change that fundamentally,
do they?

There was a time when Allie would have sworn that there
were no circumstances under which Reece would be unfaithful. He was a man of
strong principles, he was moral and respectful. Allie wondered whether those
core values could be changed over time. The only answer she could reach was:
possibly. It wouldn’t be the first time that a person had acted in a way that
seemed contrary to their convictions.

She still coudln’t quite bring herself to believe that
Reece would intentionally cheat, but her imagination was starting to build
scenarios that could account for the present situation. Maybe he and his
girlfriend, or wife, split
up
just before Allie came back into the picture. It was
quite possible that said wife or girlfriend th
e
n patched things up with Reece
when Allie ended their brief fling. However, by then, knowing the truth about
her condition, Reece felt guilty and wanted to be there for Allie during her
last weeks and months. Not wanting to lose his girlfriend/wife, he decided to
temporarily have an affair, keeping both women a secret from the other.

This all seemed perfectly plausible to Allie, who
brought her feet up onto the couch and wrapped her arms around her legs.
Staring blankly toward the window in front of her, her eyes gravitated toward
the amber glow of the streetlight. Mournfully, she released a slow, decidedly
shaky breath. “Too good to be true,” she mumbled. “Always too good to be true.”
She was talking about the last few days, which had seemed so wonderful. And she
was talking about the man she’s constantly put on a pedestal; the guy she was
sure was so different from other men. However, Reece was just a man. He wasn’t
the perfect, flawless character she’d held in her mind’s eye.

The only question that remained was what she would do
next. The damage was done, so did it matter if she continued the affair until
she succumbed to cancer? The nameless, faceless woman Reece would go back to
need never know the truth.  Shaking her head, Allie decided it was not a
decision she could make in that moment. Slipping forwards, she replaced her
feet on the floor and gradually straightened. Suddenly, she felt as though she
needed to take another shower.

Strange Visit

S
he was pulling a sweater over her head when she
heard three sharp taps at the door.  Her hair still wet, and wearing only a
pair of panties on her lower half, she yanked the overly large Berkeley sweater
down. It didn’t quite reach her mid-thigh, but covered enough to be decent. As
she was leaving the bedroom, she grasped a hair band from her dresser. Walking
through the apartment, she scooped her damp hair back and placed it in a loose
ponytail at the nape of her neck. A few strands at the sides refused to stay
and crept forward across her face, which she swiped at, as she reached for the
door.

“Got back sooner than-” her words came to a sudden halt,
when her eyes settled on a man who looked very different from the one she
expected. “Patrick,” she breathed, her gaze moving up and down the middle-aged
man’s body.

He was wearing dark pants and a white dress shirt. He also
had a bow tie that was hanging loose either side of his neck. His dark, graying
hair was slicked back with lots of gel and swept to the right with a clearly
defined side parting. “Hey, Allie,” he said smiling.

“Umm,” she babbled. “What are you doing here?” she asked quickly,
flicking her eyes self-consciously at her own state of dress.

He noticed the direction of her focus and his followed. When
she met his face again, he was grinning as he appreciatively took in her long,
slender legs. “I was at some stupid dinner,” he said, his eyes unable to meet
hers. “And I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“Me,” she murmured a flush coming to her face under the
weight of his hungry stare. “I...umm,” she stammered.

“I know it’s been a couple of weeks,” he chuckled, his voice
deep, “but don’t tell me you forgot about that night we spent together.”

“No,” Allie quickly assured him. “I haven’t forgotten. It’s
just that, we had an agreement that it was only going to be a one-night thing,
right?”