Page 11 of Happy Is On Hiatus
“You need to calm down!” he fired back.
“Calm down?” Rita reached for another bottle from his dresser and threw that one at him too. “Oh, I’m calm, you simple bastard! I’m as calm as I’m gonna get!” Another bottle went flying across the room and another, until Nate was ducking from one direction to the next, bobbin’ and weavin’ around their bedroom like a cartoon character. While she was aiming and throwing like she was trying to win the biggest, ugliest teddy bear at the church carnival.
Nate moved fast, crossing the room and grabbing her wrists just as she was about to reach for whatever else she could find on his dresser to throw at his lying self. He held her tight, walking them both away from the dresser. Fury still bubbled inside her, and now he was too close. And he was touching her with the same hands that had touched that woman and countless others.
She wrestled to get free of his hold. “Get your hands off of me!”
He released her with a little push, and she bounced back onto the bed. But she didn’t stay down. Jumping up again, she reached for the lamp on the nightstand, stopping just as her fingers wrapped around the stem. What the hell was she doing? Was she really going to destroy her house for this fool?
“Are you gonna listen to me, or do you just want to break up everything in this room?” He had the audacity to sound annoyed.
Staring at her fingers for what seemed like endless moments, Rita took a steadying breath and let them slip away from the lamp. She cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair before turning to face him again.
He was wearing brown khaki pants and a yellow polo shirt. His white tennis shoes were crisp, not necessarily brand new because Nate kept all his shoes looking like they were fresh out of the box. Diamond studs sparkled in each of his ears as she looked at the familiar round face. The umber tone of his skin and thin beard he’d begun wearing a few years ago. His eyes were a very dark brown, so sometimes they looked black; his hair, the same color, was cut close, the odd line-up he always had still receding.
Nate had broad shoulders, and the twenty-five pounds he’d picked up over the last twenty years looked good on him thanks to the time he spent working out. A gold watch shone at his wrist as he stood back, licking his lips in that way that said he was thinking hard about something. Probably about what lie to feed her next. Well, he need not think too hard on that one. There was nothing he could say that she’d ever believe again.
“No,” she said solemnly. Her voice was lower than it had been just moments ago, the rage that had her trembling on the inside slinking back a bit. She stood straight as she looked at him now, arms at her sides, fingers extended so that she wasn’t holding in anger there. “I’m not going to destroy everything in my house.”
He raised a brow. “Ourhouse.”
“This stopped being our house when you started stepping out of it and slipping into another woman’s bed.” The declaration came easily, the burning in the back of her throat at the words not so much.
He shook his head. “You’re too old to be believing everything you hear. Now, I don’t have time to stand here explaining to you that some jealous bitch is playing games with you, because we’ve been down thisroad before.” He turned away from her and knelt down to pick up one of the bottles that hadn’t broken in her hit-the-jackass target practice.
All the more reason why he should’ve known better than to take the denial track, but it was what it was. “And we’ll never walk this path again,” she told him. “I want you out of my house. And yes, I saidmyhouse.”
She circled around him to the dresser again and grabbed the last of his socks, but he stopped her with another hand to her arm. This time he squeezed harder as he yelled, “Stop it! I’m not playing this game with you. Put my shit down!”
Yanking her arm from his grasp, she threw the socks in his face and pushed him back so that he was no longer invading her personal space. “Make that the last time you put your hands on me, Nate.” Now her tone was tinged with something Rita hadn’t heard in a very long time—possibly ever—since she’d never been faced with this type of hurt and betrayal before.
The other affairs, they’d been what they were—just affairs. Or at least that was what she’d told herself each time Nate insisted the affairs were over. Immediately after those declarations Nate would swear he was dedicated to their marriage. And, every time, Rita would believe him. It was a foolish belief, she knew that now, and had most likely known it on some level then. But today was a different day, and she wasn’t the one Nate McCall wanted to mess with.
“Now, I’ve already contacted my attorney. I gave her Chris’s name since I figured you’d call him to represent you, so she’ll be in touch with him later this week. For now, I want the house and my car, and we’ll work the rest out. I’ve got a meeting to go to, so you have three hours to get the rest of your crap out of here.” She didn’t know how much longer she could resist the burning urge to cry.
It’d plagued her all day as well while she’d moved about the house gathering his stuff. Every room she walked in held a memory of their life together. Everything she touched in this house, every picture, everyscent, it all circled right back to him—her husband—and the life they’d built as a couple. The life that was in shambles right now. But she hadn’t cried, hadn’t shed one tiny tear. Instead, she’d reminded herself that this was something she should’ve done a long time ago and that she wasn’t going to look back. The past was done, and she didn’t know what the future held; all she knew was that she wasn’t spending another day pretending to be the happily married Rita McCall.
“You’re out of your mind,” he said and ran a hand down his face.
“No,” she told him. “I’m finally in my right mind.”
“She’s lying, Rita. That’s not my baby,” he implored, his tone softer than it had been before.
The chuckle came abruptly from her as she continued to swallow back tears. “You’re so pathetic. You didn’t even have the good sense to say ‘I didn’t sleep with her’ this time. No, you just went right for denying paternity.”
He frowned. “Rita, let’s sit down and talk.”
“No, Nate. I’m done talking. Get your crap and get out!”
She left him standing there, walking out of the room as normally as she possibly could, and headed down the hall. Her hand held tight to the banister as she made it to the stairs and took them one by one. She didn’t trust her legs, nor the tears that now stung her eyes. Biting her bottom lip, she prayed long and hard that they wouldn’t fall. She couldn’t cry over him. Not today. Not ever. Crying wasn’t going to change what he’d done, and it wasn’t going to stop the tightening that had been in her chest since that phone had rung at 5:18 this morning.
Walking into the living room, she found her purse and checked inside to make sure she had her keys and her cell phone. Then she went to the garage and climbed into her car. There she sat for she didn’t know how long, just staring through the windshield trying to make sense of all that had happened.
Three weeks ago when Nate had returned from a business trip, Rita had been in the bedroom removing the plastic from the clothes she’dpicked up from the cleaners. Nate had come up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist in that way he always did, pulling her back against him. She’d immediately leaned into him. From day one he’d been her rock, someone she could go to and talk about anything—her hopes, dreams, plans.
She’d missed him more during that last trip than she ever had before and had inhaled deeply of his scent, folding her arms over his at her waist as he kissed her temple. He’d whispered something about missing her and needing her, and Rita had mimicked his words. When he’d lowered his hands to unbutton the jeans she’d been wearing, Rita hadn’t stopped him, and moments later he’d been pushing deep inside her, filling her in that way that only Nate had ever been able to do. He’d been her first lover, her only lover, her entire life.
Letting her forehead rest on the steering wheel now, she cursed herself for being such a fool. Nate had probably been with one of his hoes that time as well, and he’d come home to her, having sex with her in the same way ... the same way he had their entire marriage. With no condom.
