Color of Forgiveness (2 page)

“She was supposed to sleep on the couch last
night
in her damn clothes,”
he says the words extra loud for
Sabrina’s benefit, “and leave this morning. I don’t know how she
ended up in my shirt.”

Myra purses her lips and tilts an eyebrow,
giving him a look that says she doesn’t believe a word coming out
of his mouth.

“It’s the truth,” he mumbles. “Nothing
happened.”

“If nothing happened, then what were you
doing with her yesterday? Why didn’t you call or text me back? Do
you know how worried I was?”

Swallowing hard, he drops his gaze to the
porch, feeling like a complete shit. “It’s just that… well,
something happened and we had to, uh, there was something we had to
take care of and–”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Look, let me take care of things here and
get her gone and then I’ll come over and we can talk, all right?
I’ll explain everything. I promise.”

“No,” Myra says, shaking her head defiantly.
“I need some answers, right now.”

“Well, you’re not gonna get your answers
right now. Like I fucking said this is neither the time nor the
place,” he says. He drops his voice again. “She’s
listening
,” he whispers, motioning his head towards the
house and raising his eyebrows for extra affect.

“I don’t care if she’s listening,” Myra
shouts.

“Well, I do,” he shouts back.

They stare each other down for a long moment
neither one of them giving an inch. Finally, Myra’s gaze drops to
the porch and her shoulders slump. She continues to stare at the
porch for a moment before turning and walking towards her car
without saying a word.

Dylan moves to the edge of the steps and has
to stop himself from running after her. For a brief moment, he
considers just telling Sabrina to get the hell out and dragging
Myra into the house so he can set things straight with her right
this minute. But something holds him back. He opens and closes his
mouth several times, wanting to say something to her –
anything
– to try to smooth this situation over until he can
talk to her again, but he doesn’t know what the hell to say.
Finally, he just yells out, “I’ll come over soon, okay?” Frowning,
he watches as she doesn’t turn around or acknowledge him. She
simply slips into her car and drives away. His eyes stay on her car
until it disappears out of sight.

“Goddamn it,” he mumbles, smacking his open
palm hard against the railing on the porch. He wishes like hell he
had his boots on so he could kick the motherfucking shit out of
something right now.

Angrily, he opens the door and steps back
into the house. Yanking a shirt and a pair of jeans off of the
floor in the living room, he quickly gets dressed. When he steps
into the kitchen, he finds Sabrina sitting at the table drinking a
cup of coffee.

“What the hell were you doing wearing only
my shirt?” he shouts.

Sabrina rolls her eyes. “God, Dylan, settle
down. You’re so dense sometimes. Look at these skinny jeans I’m
wearing,” she says, motioning her hand to her legs. “Do you think
these are comfortable? I was miserable last night so I just picked
one of your shirts up off of the floor to sleep in, like you
obviously did just now. You’ve probably got ten of them lying
around that nasty living room of yours.”

“You should’ve gotten dressed before you
answered the door.”

“Are you kidding me? I was half asleep.”

Pissed off, Dylan slumps into a chair across
from her. He scrubs a hand roughly through his hair and takes in a
deep breath. “What did she say… when she showed up?”

Sabrina stares at him thoughtfully for a
moment and ignores his question. “So, you and her, huh…?”

“I’m not gonna talk about this shit with
you.”

She continues staring at him for a moment
longer before finally sighing and looking down at her cup. “She
doesn’t seem like your type. I’m not going to lie to you it really
hurts, a lot. It’s just always been us, you know?” She looks up at
him, her eyes shiny. “Just you and me… I’m having a really hard
time thinking of you with someone else.”

“We went round and round about this
yesterday…”

“I know. It’s just that yesterday, she
didn’t have a face.”

“Look, I know this is damn hard, but let’s
try to move past it. Believe me; I didn’t have any fucking idea she
was going to show up here today. Now what happened?”

Sabrina sighs heavily. “Well, the first time
she showed up, she—”

“What the fuck do you mean by ‘the first
time’? She came to the door more than once?”

“Yes. If you’d shut up, I’ll explain.”

Dylan clenches his fists under the table and
somehow manages to keep his mouth shut. But it’s really fucking
difficult for him. “Well?”

“The first time, she said she needed to talk
to you and I told her that you were asleep. I said I didn’t want to
wake you up because you didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Why the hell did you tell her that?” he
growls.

“Because it’s true… you were completely
exhausted, and you didn’t get into bed until late.”

Dylan mumbles a ‘fuck’ under his breath,
sickened by how that must have sounded to Myra. “What else did you
tell her?”

“I told her that I would tell you that she
stopped by, and then she left.”

Dylan’s eyes narrow. “How did she find out
you were my ex?”

“Oh,” Sabrina says, averting her gaze to the
table. “She asked who I was before she left.”

“And what exactly did you say?”

Her eyes stay on the table. “I just
introduced myself and told her that I was your ex-wife.”

Dylan studies her for a moment, wondering if
that’s all there is to the story. He casually glances at Sabrina’s
hands that cradle her coffee cup and his eyes widen when his gaze
lands on her left hand. “Why the fuck are you still wearing that
ring? I asked you to take it off yesterday.”

Sabrina holds her hand up and admires the
ring, shrugging slightly. “I forgot.”

“Goddamn it,” he mumbles while closing his
eyes and rubbing his temples, feeling like his head’s about to
explode. He blows out a heavy breath. “So she came back…?”

Sabrina nods. “Yeah, I had just gotten
comfortable on the couch when she started knocking again. She was
really upset and demanded that I wake you up. I told her no and
tried to get her to leave, but she’s a persistent little thing. She
held her phone up in my face and threatened to send a cop friend of
hers over with his siren blaring if I didn’t get you up. So I
finally gave in and decided to wake you. I figured me waking you up
was a lot better than a siren.”

Dylan has to bite his lip to suppress a
grin. He can’t imagine Myra threatening Sabrina like that. “Is that
all? Did you say anything else to her?”

Sabrina shakes her head.

“All right,” Dylan says, resting his elbows
on the table. “I’m gonna go take a shower. Are you good to head on
home now?”

“Yeah,” Sabrina says.

Dylan pushes away from the table and stands.
He stares down at her for a moment. “I… I wanted to say I’m really
glad that shit is, you know, going good for you.”

Sabrina stands and faces him. “Thanks. That
means a lot,” she says with a small, sad smile on her lips. “Can I
have a hug?”

Dylan nods as he awkwardly leans in to give
her a half hug with one arm. She wraps both arms around his neck
and hugs him tight before giving him a kiss on the cheek. She pulls
back slightly, keeping her arms still wrapped around his neck.
“Thank you for taking care of everything yesterday. I was so upset
and such a mess – I didn’t know what to do. You were just
wonderful. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Dylan nods pulling away from her embrace.
“Keep doing what you’re doing because you look… you look really
good. This is hard for me to say and shit but… I’m really proud of
you.”

A beautiful smile crosses Sabrina’s face.
“Thanks. I’m proud of myself too.” Reaching her hand out, she
squeezes him lightly on the arm.

Her smile fades, a crease lining her
forehead. She reaches up and touches his hair. “I’ve never seen
your hair this long. You’re so different,” she says, her gaze
moving up and down his frame, “… your hair, your clothes, this
house… just everything. I have to say I’m a little worried about
you.”

“You don’t have shit to worry about. I’m
doing fine on my own. You just haven’t seen me in a long time.”

Sabrina stares at him for a moment. “Are you
sure you’re okay?”

“Yep,” he says quickly. He’s not been okay
for a long time but he sure as hell isn’t going to let her know
that.

Sabrina stares at him for a moment before
she finally nods. “Well, now that I know where you live, would it
be all right if I came to visit you some time?”

His face scrunches up. “Nah, I don’t think
that would be—”

“Just as friends,” she says interrupting
him. “We can still be friends, can’t we?”

“I don’t know…”

“Just think about it, okay?”

Dylan knows he can’t be friends with
Sabrina. But the hopeful look in her eyes makes him feel guilty so
he finally gives up and gives her a nod.

“Thanks,” she says with a small smile. “It
was really good to see you.”

Dylan nods at her before turning and heading
down the hallway to take a shower. He doesn’t look back.

* * *

With her coat still on, Myra slowly sinks
down into her couch. She sits, unmoving, staring straight ahead at
nothing in particular. Everything is numb, but maybe that’s a good
thing. There won’t be any more tears now; she’s done crying over
men, at least for the moment.

Her gaze moves to the door. She stares at it
for a while wondering what she’s going to do when Dylan knocks on
it. Because right now she has no desire to ever open the door to
that man ever again. Why should she? He slept with her, skipped out
on her and ran off to do God knows what with his ex-wife.

His
ex-wife
.

Myra still can’t believe he was married. Why
couldn’t he have told her that? It wouldn’t have mattered to her
that he was divorced. But it sure matters now that he was hiding
the fact. She can’t believe she actually thought something bad had
happened to Sabrina. She feels like an idiot for feeling sorry for
him.

Somehow she has let another man come into
her life and crush her again. It’s like she’s a magnet for
worthless men. She knew better than to get involved with Dylan.
There were warning signs everywhere. The man was a total asshole to
her from day one. And she saw almost immediately that he had
serious anger and communication issues. So why didn’t she stop it?
Why did she let herself be drawn to him? Why did she let her
attraction for him override her common sense?

Drawing in a deep breath, she realizes that
she has no answers to those questions. She has no idea why she let
things go so far. But at least she can put a stop to it now. They
were only together for one night. It’s not like she fell in love
with him or anything… right?

Unable to deal with where her thoughts are
leading, she stands keeping her eyes focused on the door and makes
a decision. When he knocks again, she won’t be here.

Taking the stairs slowly, she pulls a
suitcase out of the closet and starts packing. Dylan doesn’t
deserve another chance. She gave him the opportunity to give her
something – some type of explanation – when she confronted him. But
she got nothing. She can’t bear the thought of hearing him make up
excuses. She just wants to get as far away from this stupid town as
she possibly can. Nothing has gone right since she moved back to
this godforsaken place. It was a mistake for her to move here in
the first place. It’s time to get away. She’ll go stay with Susie
and clear her head. Do some thinking. And put some much-needed
space between her and Dylan.

Her phone rings and she startles, her heart
skipping a beat in her chest. Pulling her phone out of her pocket,
she blows out a breath when she sees Susie’s name. Susie will help
her through this. She doesn’t know what she’d do without her.

“Hey,” she says.

“Myra?” Susie says before choking on a
sob.

Her heart plummets to the pit of her
stomach. “What’s wrong?” she asks, barely able to breathe.

Susie doesn’t answer; all Myra can hear are
her tearful gasps.

“Susie? What’s going on? You’re scaring me,”
she says, her heart practically pounding out of her chest.

“My… my dad... he… he’s gone, Myra. He’s
gone.”

Tears instantly spring to Myra’s eyes as she
collapses onto the bed. “What? Oh my god, Susie. What happened?”
she asks breathlessly.

“He… he had… an aneurism,” Susie says in
between sobs. “He’s gone.”

“Oh, no,” Myra says, a painful lump forming
in her throat as tears begin to streak down her face. “I’ll catch
the first flight out, okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay,” Susie says in a small voice.

“I’ll call you when I get everything figured
out. I love you, Susie, I love you so much. I’ll be there
soon.”

“I love you too.”

Myra hangs up and drops her face into her
hands as a sob rips from her chest, her heart aching for her best
friend. All the emotions that she went through when she lost her
father hit her hard. But this isn’t her father. This is Susie’s
father. She has to get it together and be there for her friend.

Quickly wiping her eyes, she gets herself
together and pulls out her laptop. There’s a flight out of Boise
that she can make if she hurries, so she quickly books it. Then she
starts shoving things into her suitcase as fast as she can. Hauling
it downstairs, she grabs her coat and slips it on. But when she
gets to the door, she stops for a moment and looks back, staring at
the worn furniture, the fireplace and the pictures on the mantle.
Her eyes focus in on the picture of her Grampie and Jim. She smiles
and whispers a soft, “Bye,” before closing the door after her.