The Dark Stranger

Hard times

"The Dark Stranger"
© VeGirl 2014

* * * * * * * *

The next morning I do my best to avoid Peter. When he walks to the kitchen for breakfast I take a long shower; when he sits by the TV, I choose the kitchen. Finally he manages to intercept my effort of avoiding him in the hallway. "We need to talk."

"No we don't."

"Yes, I'm sorry I was the jealous husband last night, I just..."

"You're not my husband."

"Yet..."

That shuts me up; and that is also when I realize that maybe I don't want him to be my husband. "I just saw that guy walk you to the door and he had his arm around you." His voice trail off and he pull a hand through his hair. "I just..."

I say nothing, but am beginning to feel bad for the guy.

He starts to shift weight between his feet. "Have you've been cheating on me?" he asks silent and doesn't look at me.

I sigh. "No I haven't, I'm not that kind of girl and I thought you knew that."

"Yes, that's what I thought."

"Don't you lay that on me!" My mood changes in an instant and anger erupts. "I have not done anything wrong here, all I did was to out dancing and then Milo took me home when I was scared." I swallowed the last part of that sentence and wished I had swallowed more of it.

"Scared?"

Damn it! I didn't want him to know that. I close my eyes and take a calming breath before I turn to him and give him the most natural of my fake smiles. "Yeah, I had some kind of stalker there yesterday, that's why Milo was like a shadow on me."

"Stalker," he asks confused. "What do you mean stalker?" Peter demand to know.

I don't want to talk about this with him. "Just drop it, will you," I sigh. "That was last night and it's over now."

"Who is following you, Sam?" Peter's voice is raw and threatening.

I exhale in abjection and my eyes narrow in on his face. "I don't know. I shouldn't have told you, I knew you would be like this, all protective and like a raging bull." I watch him with the annoyance obvious on my puckered eyebrows.

"Of course I will, when somebody is after my girl!"

"I am my own, you don't own me Peter," I say soft.

He furrows his eyebrows. "Are you saying I can't protect you?"

"All I'm saying is that you don't own me." I sharpen both my tone and look.

"I've never said that, but you're still my fiancée, aren't you?" His anger turns into sweetness and I regret my harsh words, but everything seems to make me on edge nowadays, I guess that Eddie was right about that.

* * *

Peter is giving me full attention at home for the following week, and it starts to get on my nerves. He is constantly asking how I am and if there is anything he can do for me. Finally I have to ask what is going on. "Have I got some mortal disease or something, to make you act like this?"

He is taken aback by my blunt approach. "No! I'm just... You've been acting strange ever since..."

I look expectantly at him to get the rest of that statement. "Since what?" Mentally I cross my arms over my chest, and then I get it. "Ah... Since you found the pregnancy test," I conclude slowly and tiredness is paralyzing my body.