"I miss him..." Stevie whispered, head resting on the back of the passenger seat as she stared blankly out the window at the LA traffic.
They had flown home together that morning, but once the plane landed, they split up in the parking garage. He had tried to convince her to come to his condo with him- he wasn't ready to leave her and she wasn't either, but they both had so many responsibilities.
She couldn't just never go back to her house to face reality and he still had a wife that was a little worried about where he had disappeared to.
They weren't twenty- two anymore... they had things to handle, lives to get situated and people to let down before they could really devote their time to one another.
Biting down on the inside of her cheek, Karen lightly glanced over at her boss. "Are you going to break up with George?" It wasn't her business- she knew that, but she still cared and was slightly concerned...
However, that wasn't new for her. She had been on edge about the entire situation since Stevie had come home from dinner one night, only three months into their relationship with a diamond ring on her finger... She couldn't voice it then, obviously, but for the first time ever, Karen was actually really rooting for Lindsey.
With a soft smile, Stevie couldn't help but stare at Karen's sun burnt nose and beet red checks. "You should have worn some sunscreen on your mini vacation..." Stevie teased, even though she knew it was supposed to be a serious moment.
Rolling her eyes playfully, the younger woman's gaze traveled back to the road ahead. "Very funny." She mumbled, even though there was soft grin trailing across her face.
She had really taken her four days off as a time to rest, so much so, she'd fallen asleep by the pool after a couple of long islands and got so burned, she smelled like aloe and healing ointments terribly.
Sinking down, Stevie chuckled softly as she nodded her head. "I have to." She shrugged, going back to the question Karen had asked before she changed the topic.
"And Lindsey's going to do the same for you...?" She wondered, not to be mean or negative, but truly wanting to know if the feelings were being reciprocated this time around.
She paused for a moment, mind going back to the conversation she'd shared with him just the night before. "I think so." Stevie really did have faith in him... She could just tell that things weren't going to slip back into that same old pattern that they had created with each other.
"It's time." Karen assured, which was her way of telling Stevie that she also thought they were doing it right... finally.
~~~
He slipped in through the front door a little after five that evening, a smile on his face that immediately disappeared when his eyes met the duffel bag waiting on the accent chair in the foyer.
It was one of his travel bags and it had been packed with all the clothes he'd kept in a drawer in her dresser, the hygiene products he'd left in her bathroom and anything else she'd found laying around her home that belonged to him...
"Stevie...?" George raised a brow softly, trailing into the kitchen where he'd heard dishes clanking and pots banging together.
With a soft sigh, she looked up from the sink, where she'd been washing a couple of vases and random empty glasses she'd found while retrieving his things. "Hi..." her brown eyes met his, a very faint smile on her face as she watched him linger in the doorway.
"Everything alright?" He wondered, even though it was obvious that something was off.
She paused for a moment, reaching out for the towel on the counter to dry off her soapy hands. "I have to talk to you about something." She announced as she lightly motioned for him to take a seat at a barstool across the kitchen island.
Shifting lightly, he slowly moved further into the room. "That's never a good sign." His hands gently fell on the marble top, not sitting down by still focused directly on her.
Her heart sank a little, knowing that I'd she prolonged the inevitable any longer, it would just make it worse.
So she pulled open the kitchen drawer to take out the blue velvet box that her ring had come in. "I can't accept this..." her voice was so gentle and sympathetic... it wasn't easy for her either, even though she knew it was the best for them both.
Creasing a brow, he scoffed instantly. "What?" He picked it up off the counter, popping open the top to reveal the ring he'd spent hours picking out. "You can't accept it?" He repeated her words in a more annoyed, or confused way.
That was the last thing he was expecting to walk into that night.
She bit down on her lower lip, not able to look him in the eye. "I'm not ready to get married and-"
"You're sixty- seven, Stevie." He cut her off, obviously not in the best mood anymore. "What do you mean by not ready?" He thought that was just crazy...a really stupid thing for her to say.
It wasn't like they were twenty years old, or right out of college... The woman was past the age of retirement, for crying out loud. By then he figured that she would at least know what she wanted in life.
"I know how old I am." She smiled lightly, suddenly not sure being gentle was the best way to handle the situation. "And at sixty- seven," she emphasized, only because he'd done the same. "I don't have to explain myself to you or anyone else." Stevie wasn't normally that way, but something about his reaction didn't settle well with her.
She knew it wasn't going to be easy... not many men like rejection, but for some reason, she felt like it was worse than she had imagined.
He stopped for a moment, staring into the brown eyes of the woman he really had loved as a deep sigh escaped him. "I'm sorry, Stevie." He held up a hand as he shifted all his weight from one foot to the other.
Wrapping her sweater around herself, she sank down. "I don't want to waste anymore of your time." She admitted, shrugging lightly as she tossed one hand to her side. "I don't think I ever really wanted to be married in the first place and I'm sorry that you've spent the last couple of months with someone who filled you with hope that wasn't reciprocated." She had thought about what she was going to say all afternoon and though that wasn't exactly it, she thought it summed it all up pretty well.
"I was excited." He let out a soft laugh, totally in disbelief.
"I know," she felt as small as ant. "But you'll find someone else that is so wonderful and that will love you forever." Stevie believed that, she really did because he was that type of guy. "And she'll be worth all of this." She added as she motioned around the room- meaning the chaos and the shit she'd put him through.
He paused for a moment, eyes roaming to the vase of red roses sitting on the counter. "There's someone else?" He kind of ignored her words, not sure what to say when he didn't believe any of it. "It's Lindsey, isn't it?" George had known something was going on, but the card sticking out of the plants clarified that.
With tears filling her eyes lightly, she nodded. "It's Lindsey." She wasn't going to lie- she didn't have a reason to. "And it always will be." Stevie added in the most sensitive way she could.
He just stared at her for a second, and then, without saying a single word, his hand met the side of the vase with such force, it fell right off the counter.
She let out a soft gasp, flinching lightly when the glass hit the floor so hard, it shattered into a million tiny pieces.
