A Known Stranger

Epilogue

Epilogue

New York City: 4 years later.

                I sat on the fire escape, the feel of the cold metal seeped through the material of my jeans but I paid no attention to it. The noises of the busy world below surrounded me. The sound of honking cars, distant chatter, laughter and so many other noises I couldn’t place reached my ears. It was fresh out tonight. The temperature reached a low seventy-six as of an hour ago, around the same time I had decided that waiting inside would only drive me insane.

                Noah and I had fought, again.

                Like always, the argument began the moment he told me he had to work the night shift once again. Lately, he had been working so many hours that I hadn’t seen or spent time with him for more than a few minutes.

                Although I understood he had to work, I didn’t understand why he had to work so many extra hours. We were doing fine financially. With the both of us working, we were banking more than enough money monthly to keep us afloat. We weren’t behind on any bills, in fact we were ahead.

                But although I acted as if working so many extra hours was okay, tonight I couldn’t put on that front. My day had been complete shit and all I had wanted was to spend some time with him. But he had to work, and I had snapped and then he had snapped back and after we both had yelled at each other, he had stormed off, yelling over his shoulder that he was going to be late for work.

                That had been three hours ago.

                “I have to go!” he had yelled after he had pushed past me and walked into our bedroom. His back was facing me as he searched the closet for his work shirt.

                “Why can’t you just call them back? Tell them that something important came up!”

                “What’s so important that you need me to call off work, Fae?” he bellowed, turning around to face me. He was angry; you could see it written all over his face.

                “I need you!” I yelled, feeling the anger start to boil in the pit of my stomach. “Am I not important enough for you to call off work one night?! I had a complete shit day and all I want is to spend my night with my boyfriend!”

                “Just because you had a shit day doesn’t mean I have to drop everything to console you, Fae.” He snapped back.

                “And why can’t you?” I asked. I felt my eyes begin to burn but I knew I wasn’t about to cry. I hadn’t cried in three years. Why should this fight make any difference? I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes at him. “I would do it for you, if you asked.” I said, my voice was low and I knew it carried a lot of emotion.

                Noah was breathing heavily. His chest kept rising and falling, his eyes were red but I’m pretty sure it was from anger. “I can’t.” he spit out. “I have to get to work, Fae.”

                And with that, he stalked past me out of our bedroom, into the living room and then the front door to our apartment slammed shut. I remained standing there, jaw set, fists clenched until my knuckles turned white. I stood there until I was positive he was far enough away from the apartment before I let my anger flood through the gates.

                I screamed. Something between a cry and a growl of frustration and gripped at the roots of my hair. He infuriated me.