Page 65 of Love Unavoidable
Chapter 17
sadie
I stand there until the sun goes down, not sure what to think about the conversation that Ethan and I just had. I was honest with him and it blew up in my face. He couldn’t take it. I guess better I know now than later on down the road when we are already involved.
I head back to the baby shower, hopeful I haven’t missed too much of it. I don’t see Ethan in the front yard. Or inside the house. Or on the back patio and balcony. I pull Kat aside and ask if she’s seen him.
“He left,” she says.
“Left, like left?”
“Yep, said he had somewhere to be. I don’t blame him. I think women and married guys can tolerate this shit better than single men can. This has got to be torture for them. I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did.”
“Did he seem . . . upset?”
“Why? You two get into a fight again?”
“Is that what he said, that we were fighting?”
“No, he didn’t say anything about you, actually. I’m the one asking if you two are fighting.”
“I feel like we are always fighting,” I say.
“That can’t be good,” Kat says.
“Really? Why do you say that?”
“Uh, ‘cause always fighting isn’t good. Although, I guess it depends on how you makeup. You know, how you handle it all after. You should ask Remi. She and Chance bicker all the time. I swear, for them, fighting is foreplay.”
“I can’t imagine the two of them ever truly disagreeing on anything. They are adorable together, I love their dynamic.”
“Well, there you go, then. Maybe for you fighting is foreplay too.”
“But isn’t that bad? Or unhealthy?”
“You thought it was adorable a second ago, so you tell me,” Kat says.
“What about when things get intense?”
“Is that bad? If you ask me, I like intensity.”
“Would you die without Brad?”
“Iwilldie with Brad, terminal cancer.”
“Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. I don’t know if I knew that.”
“Yeah, it just keeps popping up all over the place, first my tits, then my lungs, my brain, my spine. One of these days I’m going down. But until then. . . wait, what was your question? Oh right, Brad. Um, I left him once already, and I didn’t die, even though I was supposed to. So technically I know the answer is no. But emotionally, yeah, it would kill me to be without him. Why do you ask?”
“Well, doesn’t that scare you?”
“Scare me? Why would it scare me?”
“To be so dependent on someone.”
“Dying alone scares me more.”
“But what if you weren’t dying?”
