Episode 518: Love Uncompromised

He’d thought he wouldn’t start another day this way. He’d thought he wouldn’t have to miss her anymore. Last night he’d found her. After two days of frantic searching, he’d tracked her to a grungy hotel.

He’d nearly been sick to his stomach just walking in the place. It’s not like there were druggies sprawled over the hallway, but there was a smell, a feel, he couldn’t associate with Addie. His beautiful wife. He didn’t want to think of her there. He didn’t want her here a minute longer. She belonged with him. At home.

His fist hammered and hammered on the door. He almost gave up. But the neighbor across the hall screamed that they’d call the cops on him for the noise, so finally she let him in.

She looked pale. And sad. So sad. More so than he’d ever seen, which was saying a lot, considering how sad and lost she’d been before when her father ripped away her acting career. Maybe it was flattering to know losing him was even worse for her than that, still, he didn’t want to see it, didn’t want her to feel it, there was no reason she should.

The closer he moved toward her, the more light shone in her eyes, and for a moment, when he wrapped his arms around her, when he kissed her, she sagged against him, she kissed him back.

But then she pulled away. She asked him to leave. The hotel room. Her life.

He wouldn’t go though. At least not far. He loved Addie too much. He loved her enough to wake up aching on the outside as much as he did on the inside from spending the night on questionable carpet outside her door. He was not going anywhere. Not without her.

Episode 519: Tortured, Tangled Hearts