The Save Game

Chapter 13

"You can't just send text messages like that, Jackie." Sal scolded her over the phone. "Allison is a wreck. Couldn't you just say that? Just tell her who the hell it was!"

He paced back and forth, staring at Allison as she sat on the bed and pulled on an oversized sweatshirt.

"Fine!" He yelled into the phone before dropping it on the nightstand by the bed. "It's Roger. Overdose."

Sal sat beside Allison and reached out for her hand. He studied her face, waiting to see a flood of relief. When he didn't see it he let go of her hand and stood.

"That's a good thing, right?" He questioned. "That solves every problem we've come up against."

"Is it that easy, Sal? Does it really solve everything? Or does it just add to the problems?" Allison looked up at him, chewing on the side of her thumbnail as she waited for him to answer.

"Of course it does." Sal tried to understand what was going through her mind. "You can finally move on. You can live your life now. You can let Paul go."

"Is that what makes you the happiest? That Paul can die now?" She stood and walked out of the room.

"I thought that's what you wanted!" He called after her, following her into the hall. "I thought you wanted him to have peace." Sal grabbed her wrist and stopped her from walking further away from him. "Don't walk away from me again." He pleaded.

She hesitated, fighting the urge to be on her own.

"You just told me that you can't do this alone. I thought you meant that." Sal said.

"Every person in my life has abandoned me when things got rough. My parents, my sister, Jackie, Paul..." her sentence drifted off as she tried to understand why Sal wanted to stay.

He thought about the day she'd told him she was pregnant. How he'd walked away too. He understood now. She was right. Every person, including him, had left her on her own in the worst times of her life. Sal dropped his grip on her. He had no right to ask her to turn to him when he hadn't been able to do the same for her.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"I just need some time to process it all. To make that final decision." She gave him a half smile.

He didn't need to hear her say it, he already knew that she needed to do it alone.

Sal nodded and walked toward the door to let himself out.

"I do love you, Allison. And our baby too. I know you have choices in life. I hope you choose what's best for all of us." He didn't wait for her to respond. Once he was outside of her apartment, he took a deep breath and refused to look back over his shoulder.

**************

"Have you heard anything from her?" Joe pulled a chair up beside Sal and sat.

"Nothing." Sal said, tossing his keys on to the table. "How long is considered long enough before I just force her to make a decision?"

"Seriously?" Murr asked. "You can't force her to decide something. She needs time to figure things out."

"Fuck off, Murr. She's had time. Three months is a lot of time. I thought this would be an obvious choice." Sal crossed his arms and looked at Brian.

Q avoided Sal's gaze, pretending to be engrossed in a text conversation.

"You know something." Sal sat up, bumping the table as he reached across to grab a handful of Q's shirt. "Tell me!" He yelled at him.