She groaned and then sobbed. She had been crying since walking to her Jeep from Megan’s front door. In truth, she probably shouldn’t have driven considering how blurry her eyes had been with tears. But she had made it home unscathed and had been crying non-stop since. But now these fresh sobs were forcing her to stop pacing and collapse to the floor beside her bed as her body was wracked with sadness and tears.
As agonizing as this was, Vanessa also knew that she had made the right decision by leaving tonight. Megan may want to just run out the clock on their meaningless fling, meeting up for sex right up until she left for the airport, but Vanessa couldn’t do it. She had a heart to protect, her own, and so beginning her Megan detox now was the only sensible thing to do.
Her phone rang; it was still in her back pocket. From the ringtone she knew it was William. She debated not answering but, well, ride-or-die. With her luck, this would be the night William was being chased by Republicans.
Immediately after pressing the green button on the screen, William said, “Oh my God, what’s wrong? I know something’s wrong!”
Vanessa’s mouth fell open.
“Wait, how did you—”
“Magic Rainbow Hotline,” William stated, as if the answer was obvious, causing Vanessa to roll her eyes. This was one of William’s pet theories, that gay people can sense when other gay people are in distress. “I felt a shiver go up my spine just now and knew something was wrong with you.”
“She’s leaving,” Vanessa told him.
“Who?”
“Seriously? Who do you think?”
“Megan?” William asked, confusion evident in his voice. “But we always knew she was leaving, didn’t we?”
“Yes,” Vanessa confirmed, biting back a sob, “but now I know she’s leaving in two weeks and I—”
“Oh, honey,” William said. “You’ve really fallen for her, haven’t you?”
Vanessa answered by letting him hear her cry.
“Honey, I’m so sorry. But we knew this was going to happen, didn’t we?”
Again, Vanessa answered by continuing to cry openly.
“I’m on my way over,” William declared.
***
An hour later, with William holding her on the couch, Vanessa was still unable to stop the tears, though she had managed to get the sobbing under control. To his credit, from the moment he arrived, William had said nothing. He just sat there, allowing Vanessa to cry as she huddled against him.
Eventually, though, he said, “So, what now?”
Vanessa sniffled and managed to say, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what happens now? What do you want to do about this situation with Megan?”
Vanessa wiped her nose with a tissue.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked. “Megan has given me no clear evidence that she feels about me the way I feel about her. I mean, I’ve imagined that she does but for all I know that was wishful thinking.”
“Okay, but have you actually asked her if she feels the same way?”
“No.”
“You could start there,” William suggested.
“To what end?” Vanessa returned, fighting back some additional sobs that were threatening at William’s line of questioning. “Megan isn’t going to give up the New York job and before you suggest it, I wouldn’t ask her to. She’s leaving and that’s that.”
“Are you going to continue seeing her until then, though?”
Vanessa took a breath. She wanted to continue seeing Megan. In fact, she wanted to lock Megan in her bedroom so they could do nothing but have sex and snuggle with each other for the next two weeks. Vanessa wanted to get her fill of Megan…