She stopped with her back to me and her arms wrapped around her chest. It was so cold that she shivered. I walked closer and felt her tense up when I got behind her. “I love you.”
“No,” she said, shaking with a violent sob, her voice filled with panic and doubt.
“I love you,” I said again, stepping closer.
“No.” She dashed for the driver’s side of her car. I ran around to block her way.
“I love you.”
She looked away. I turned her chin so that she faced me. She wrenched away. “No,” she whimpered.
“No, what? What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this? Why won’t you talk to me?”
She shook her head. “I should go.”
“I love you.”
She started to open the door. I grabbed her wrist. She pulled it away. “You don’t love me, Jake!” She turned around to face me, and all the sadness was gone, replaced by violent anger. “You just like the idea of me.”
“Whoa, wait…”
“No. You wanted to know, so I’ll tell you. It’ll make this a lot easier.”
“At least let me defend myself.”
“No, there’s no defense. You don’t even know what you do. You don’t like women, Jake. You like whores. That’s why you got with that woman.”
“That’s not true.”
“You got with me.”
“You are not a whore,” I said. “And if you take one thing away from this, remember that, Mercedes.”
“I don’t believe it, Jake. The truth is right in front of you. You called me to have sex with you, just like you did countless times with other women. You like whores, even if you don’t know it.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Then why do you call them all the time? Why can’t you find somebody? What is it about me that you like? If you like all of those women, and you like me, then me and those women have something in common.”
“Mercedes, you don’t even know.” I shook my head. “When I met you, I was so tired of seeing those women and bringing them into my bed. They’re disgusting. I was downtown, driving home, when I saw you leaning against a wall outside of a restaurant, and I thought, ‘God, I just want a natural, beautiful woman. No more whores.’”
“What?”
“Then I called Tony, and I described you, and I said I didn’t want anyone fake. I was tired of women like that, and I’ve been tired of doing this for a long time. You were my dream girl, and you showed up at my house. It was like a miracle.”
She lowered her head to hide her tears. “Is that true?”
“You think I like being like this?”
“No.”
“I wanted to change, and you walked in, and you didn’t even know. I don’t like those women. Becky was the exact opposite of everything I liked. She was then, and she is now. I don’t like whores.”
“But that’s how this started. I’ll always be your whore.”
“Mercedes, you and I both know that you were never my whore. You were my date, every single second that I was with you. The only reason we waited so long to get together was because I was afraid of getting into a relationship I thought would fail.”
“Why?” She looked me in the eye.