Discovering Truths by B. Benfield (chrysanthemum read aloud .TXT) 📕

message from the only person who brought me a sense of contentment.

Gage: You good? Haven’t heard from you lately.

We messaged throughout most of the day, so the fact that we hadn’t talked in a few hours was unusual. I loved that he checked up on me. It was another factor that showed me he cared.

Me: Hey…I’m good. Bad night. Marcus and I got into it pretty bad. He left.

Gage: He left?

Me: Just for the night he says.

Gage: Oh. Are you okay?

Me: Yeah, I’m fine. Things got taken a little too far.

Gage: How? Did he hurt you?

Me: He pushed me around a little bit, but I’m fine.

Gage: That pisses me off. Has he hit you before?

Me: He’s never hit me. This is the first-time things actually got physical. I’m still kind of in shock.

Gage: I’m so sorry, Abby. I wish I could kick his ass. You don’t deserve that.

Me: It’s fine. I’ll be done with him soon enough.

Gage: So sorry, baby.

Me: Let me ask you a serious question, Gage. And be honest. Do you see a future with us? Do you think we could actually be together? Like for real?

His answer would put a lot of things into perspective for me, and I needed to know. Whether he thought we could be together or not, I was still leaving Marcus, but I needed to know if he actually thought we could make something more of our relationship. If he didn’t, I didn’t know if I could continue with him any longer, but then again, I loved him so much, who knew what I’d actually consider doing.

Gage: Honestly, Abby…I do love you, that’s the truth, but I can’t just drop everything right now and leave her. I have a son and things just aren’t that easy. That being said, I do plan to leave her eventually. We just have to figure things out. I have a feeling she would try to take me to the cleaners for money and everything else, and I want things fifty-fifty when it comes to Bentley…so there’s a lot involved. I do think that if you and I are still going strong a year from now, then I’m definitely going to have to figure out something.

I knew things wouldn’t be easy considering he had a child involved, that’s why I didn’t want to pressure him. But a year? That seemed like a long time and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

Me: I understand that. I just wanted to know…put my mind at ease, I guess.

Gage: When I told you I loved you, I meant it. Don’t let all this paranoia get in your head.

We talked until midnight and finally, I was at peace. I fell asleep with thoughts of him and a future I hoped would arrive soon.

Chapter Twenty-Four

 

Two days later, Marcus finally strolled through the door. I hadn’t talked to him. Neither of us reached out to the other. As far as I was concerned, I did nothing wrong. I didn’t know how to prepare for when I saw him, because I really didn’t know which way he was leaning. Would he still be mad, or would he apologize? Part of me wished he would just cave…just tell me the truth about everything. The other part was still holding on…

I was in my office paying bills online and balancing our checkbook. He stood in the doorway and I didn’t look up, instead focusing on my task.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

I stopped what I was doing and finally met his eyes.

“You were gone for two nights. Really?”

“I just needed some time to pull myself together. We’ve never had a fight that bad before.”

“And why did we now? What’s gotten into you?”

I knew what had gotten into him, but I awaited his excuse.

“I’m sorry, Abby. I know I was out of line and none of that should have ever happened. Work has just been ridiculous lately. I’ve never been so stressed in my life.”

Ah, there it is. Work. I should have known that would be the excuse.

“Marcus, I’ve kind of lost all sympathy for you when it comes to work. You chose that career. You knew exactly what you were getting into. What’s changed to make it so stressful?”

“I mean, people’s lives and futures are in my hands, Abby. Not to mention the business side of things now that I’ve taken over, it’s just a lot.”

“It’s still not acceptable for you to act the way you did the other night.”

“I know it’s not,” he said. “And I truly am sorry.”

“Is there anything else going on that I need to know about?” I asked.

I was opening the door, giving him the opportunity to come clean. In this moment, we could have ended it all.

“What do you mean? No. The office has had me really stressed. That won’t happen again, I promise.”

Back to the work excuse and apologizing…anything but the truth. I wasn’t going to say that I accepted it, because I didn’t.

“You kept talking crap about my job. Do you have a problem with me working? Because when I mentioned the job you talked about how good it would be for me and blah, blah, blah…”

“I was just saying things out of anger. I like that you have a job and I like that you love it.”

“Okay.” I turned my attention back to my desk and continued to work.

“Abby,” he said, moving toward me. “Why are you acting weird?”

“Do you expect things to go back to normal like nothing happened? I mean, that was kind of a big deal.”

“I just want us to move past it.”

“And we will, and I’ll get over it eventually. The fact that you’re just now coming home doesn’t really help matters.”

“Yeah…you’re right.”