Page 65 of Unbreakable
“Jeanine, you deserve happiness. He’s taking that from you. I hate to see you like this. You’re not who you used to be.”
“Yeah, I’m not. I grew up,” I said, draining my wine glass and setting it on the table between us. Andy topped it up with a half-pour and looked at me with a certain sadness.
“So did I. And I still want you, J.”
I sat up bolt in my seat. “Are you seriously doing this again, Andy? You don’t even know me anymore.”
“Well, I want to,” he panted, his eyes going glassy. “The door’s still open. With me. For us.”
I was aghast. What the hell? I was married with three children, and Andy was telling me he’d sweep me away into his life? He went on.
“I don’t know what he did, but it must be bad if you’re home without your kids and you don’t know when you’re going back. There has to be a reason you always run back here when you’re mad at him. We’ve been here before, Jeanine. I was patient. I gave you space to heal, to figure out what you wanted. We are inevitable, J.”
I could barely breathe, the wind knocked out of me. “You thinkyou’rethe reason I’m here?”
Andy blew right over that detail. “If he cheated on you, Jeannie?—”
“He didn’t cheat on me.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything!” I barked. “That’s the problem. He’s let his mom bully me for years. He knew I was drowning and instead of throwing me a lifeline, he just told me I’d get through it. He uprooted our family and told me to put up and shut up. I tried to be there for him and he yelled at me that it wasn’t soon enough. I do everything for him, the very best I can, and it’s never enough for him.”
I said it, then couldn’t believe I had, both out loud and to Andy. I panted, my eyes burning. He leaned forward and put his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry, J.”
I buried my face in my hands, my tears coming in hot. I cried in the way I needed to, in the way I’d been holding back from. Because if I cried like this, that made it more real. Andy stood, tugging on my upper arm. “Come here.”
I stood and fell into his embrace. He patted my hair and swayed me. He’d just hit on me, but I thought I gave him enough resistance to make him stop. I thought he understood that I needed a friend right then.
Apparently not.
It got weird. “You deserve better, Jeanine.” His lips pressed into the top of my head. I wrenched free from him.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
Andy snorted in a breath. “It means you could have had it different. You still could. You and the kids, you could be here.” He pointed at the ground, going full drama.
I curled my upper lip. “You don’t know what it takes, Andy. You don’t know what longevity looks like.”
“Maybe I don’t,” he shouted. “But you never let me.”
I shook my head, backing away from him. “No, you don’t get to do this.”
“I’ve waited, Jeanine.”
“I never told you to do that. I said I was done. It was over a decade ago, Andy! You were at my wedding. You said you were happy for me.”
“And a month after your wedding, you were back here, mad at him.” His stare was fierce, his eyes flitting between mine. “I was happy for you, Jeanine. All I wanted was for you to be happy. And I hate that you’re not happy now.”
Rage coursed through me so hard it shook me. I threw my arms wide. “Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, Andy! Sometimes you have to work for it.”
He shook his head. “If you were with me, I’d never let you feel unloved. Unseen. Unhappy.”
I looked to the black sky overhead. “You’re all the same,” I said, exasperated. “Everyone’s allergic to someone being unhappy. You can’t have a negative feeling or go through a real human emotion! What if shit’s just hard sometimes and all you want is someone to sit in the shit with you?”
Andy stalked up to me, staring down into my eyes. “I would sit in it with you. I wouldn’t leave you alone like this.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to go in the house. “Easy for you to say.”
