Love You Forever (2013 Wattys Finalist)

Chapter 33 - Swimming the Same Deep Water

“Robert!”

Robert jerked awake.

“Robert!”

He didn’t want to go out there, he thought miserably as his chest ached.  He knew how much it was going to hurt to hold her. 

“Robert!”

But he knew he didn’t have any fucking choice.  He couldn’t lay there listening to her, knowing the bastard was torturing her.

“Robert!”

He got up with a deep sigh, and pulled his jeans on over his boxers.  When he opened the door and walked to her, he felt like his heart was being ripped out hearing her scream for him.  Once he’d shaken her awake, he sat on the couch holding her, overwhelmed with despair while she clung to him sobbing. 

How could he have let this happen?  He knew it was a possibility he could get hurt if he came to Chicago, and yet he’d still been stupid enough to open up his heart.  Now he was suffering, and it was entirely his own doing.  As anger rose up in him, he embraced it, allowing it to push away the despair.  He felt a firm determination taking hold.  He wasn’t going to fucking wallow in misery another minute.  It was over, and he was done with it. 

As soon as Georgie stopped crying, he let go of her.  It took her a second before she released him and as soon as she did, he stood up and turned to leave.

“Robert?” Georgie said, and he hesitated, not turning around.  He considered continuing to her room without saying anything, knowing what was coming.  He really didn’t want to rehash all this shit with her all over again when there wasn’t any point to it.

“I – I just wanted to say I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday.  It’s just that when I –.”

“Georgie?” he said tiredly as he turned to face her.  “Let’s just forget about it, yeah?” 

“Really?” she said, sounding surprised.

“I’d rather not talk about it, alright?  I understand what happened.”  

“Thank you, Robert,” she said gratefully.

“It’s – nothing,” he muttered, and walked away.

“Good night,” she said quietly when he reached her bedroom, but he didn’t say anything when he closed the door.  He climbed back in bed, grateful for how exhausted he suddenly felt.  He pulled the pink floral quilt over his head and tried to turn off his mind so he could fall asleep faster.

When Robert woke up, he could tell it was late morning by the amount of light in the room.  He laid there for a while, feeling numb and empty.  He wished he could stay in bed all day but he knew it wasn’t an option.  It wouldn’t be long before Georgie would come looking for him, wondering why he wasn’t getting up so they could go off to another museum.  And he didn’t want to give May and Marianne any reason to worry about him.  They already had their hands full dealing with Georgie. 

He got out of bed with a deep sigh.  There were only nine full days left, he reminded himself while he pulled on his jeans.  He just had to get through them and then he could go home.  When he wandered into the kitchen, all three women were seated at the kitchen table in their dressing gowns.  

“Good morning,” they said warmly when they saw him.

“Morning,” he mumbled, on his way to the kettle.  Once he had his mug of tea, he sat at the table. 

“So where are you two headed today?” May asked.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Georgie said, while Robert blew on his tea.  “I can get my laptop if you want, Robert?”