Ten minutes later, she is standing by the curb, waiting for Wayne to arrive. Her heart is beating fast in her chest. 'I'll get through this,' she thinks. 'I'll only stay for ten minutes. Greg will be here waiting for me.'
She sees Wayne's car pull onto her street and she sighs. 'Here goes nothing,' she thinks, swallowing hard.
Wayne gets out of the car and wraps his arms around Melinda in a friendly, yet intimate hug. Melinda returns the gesture stiffly, thinking all the while about Greg asleep in the house behind her.
"Thank you for coming with me, Melinda," he says, a smile on his lips.
She smiles back awkwardly. "It's no problem, Wayne. Shall we go?"
"Of course," he says, turning to the car.
The drive to the café is awkward. Melinda silently focuses her attention on watching the landscape zoom by her window. She can feel Wayne glance over at her every few seconds. She swallows hard and keeps concentrating out the window.
Wayne clears his throat suddenly. "Melinda, what changed so fast?" he asks quietly.
She is startled and looks over at him, trying to decide what to say.
"I guess I just realized that we could never be, Wayne," she says softly.
"Why are you giving up on us, Melinda? I thought we still cared about each other. What happened?" he says, his brows knit in a frown.
"I'm not giving up on anything," she says. "You're married. I don't expect you to ever leave your wife, or your son, for me. And I never realized what I have in Greg. He can offer me true love now. I don't have to wait for it. Wayne, I'm sure you understand. There's just no way," she finishes, shaking her head sadly.
He nods, staring straight ahead at the road.
"You never gave me a chance, Melinda. But," he sighs, "I understand."
He is silent for a few seconds. Then he says, "But this doesn't mean I'm going to give up on you. I can't just stop loving you, Melinda."
She doesn't respond. She looks down at her hands resting in her lap and sighs quietly. It wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. Yet, part of her is relieved…
 
|