Chapter 6 - a cold bed

"I want to apologize", he said.

I'd woken to find myself alone this morning with a cool bed that suggested he'd been gone hours. No note. Nothing.

This afternoon he'd come by to discuss putting the house up for sale.

"Apologize for what?" I asked stiffly. I hadn't thought he'd simply walk out without a word like that, not after last night.

"I was deep in my cups last night, and more than a little intoxicated by your charms..." he said, raising an eyebrow. "I had no intention of something like that happening."

"Something like that?" I asked, fighting tears, "Wow, you people really are backward, we f*****, James. Call it what it is."

I had hoped he'd notice I was angry, but his frigidity just seemed to feed off mine. "And thank you for THAT, for reminding me how different we are."

"Indeed", I said, "So, you came to talk about the house. So talk."

"Low Country Realty showed interest first. They can be out to take pictures tomorrow, list it by the end of the day...I'd say you can be several million dollars richer by the end of the week."

Several million. From a crappy little apartment and scraping by at the ATM to several million. I could get a nice place in L.A. A house. That would pathetic compared to this of course. Money didn't buy much there.

Too bad I was so distracted from the good news by my blood boiling. Who was this guy to think he could get up and leave me in the middle of the night? To apologize coldly, and leave drunkenness as an excuse, as if touching me had somehow soiled him.

"Low County it is", I said, "If there's nothing else, you can go."

"What's with the attitude, Savannah? You're acting upset. But you can't be upset. You're leaving, remember? You're leaving. I'm just a corn fed southern boy, and you're a movie star, you hate this place, these people, all things southern, remember..."

I flicked away a tear and turned to get as far away as possible.

"Talk to me, Savannah, what's going on? Come back here!"

I ran out the door back.

"Savannah! Savannah!"

I grabbed my arm. "What is this?"

And then I cracked him hard across the face.