The Harbour...Chapter 62: A Not-So-Chance Encounter
Wrapped in bathrobes, they sat at the dining room table with a bottle of wine and a wooden platter of freshly made crostini in front of them.
Marco told her that he had run into Kyle after the gym.
He had the same workout routine four days a week so if you knew it, it wasn’t that hard to track him down.
He figured it was no coincidence that he had seen Kyle, who asked him how it felt that after he and Carolyn had spent a night together all those years ago, that she had accepted his marriage proposal.
“I just wanted to shut him up, so I told him to ask you why you had agreed to marry him.”
She put her hand to her mouth as she laughed softly.
“You didn’t!” She giggled. “I’d have loved to see his face! What did he say?”
Marco shrugged and grinned.
“I dunno. I walked away”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Kyle sat back. His shoulders drooped.
“Cassie’s never said anything though,” Max said.
“I’m just letting you know that if she told me not to say anything I wouldn’t.”
“You’d take your woman’s side over your best friend’s?” Kyle asked, he smiled weakly his tone more resigned than accusatory.
Max’s eyes flashed.
“She may not have accepted my proposals, but we’re still together after 16 years.”
He sounded slightly annoyed.
Kyle closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair.
“Hey man, I’m sorry.” Max’s face softened and he leaned over and touched his friend’s arm.
“That was a shitty thing to say.
Kyle opened his eyes.
“It’s the truth though,” he said with a crooked smile.
“We’re not that different, yet you somehow managed to keep your relationship together.”
“No. Our relationships are different. Cassie never believed I could be faithful to her. She made that clear the day we got back together.”
Like Kyle and Carolyn, Cassie and Max had dated in high school and broken up over his infidelity.
They too had gotten back together years later after they graduated university.
“Cas’ has refused to marry me. She won’t even tell me she loves me. She says the fact that we have two kids and she’s still with me will have to be enough.”
“She never asks if I’ve been with other women while I’m on the road. As she sees it, if I say yes, she’d be upset and if I say no, she wouldn’t believe me, so it’s best just not to have the conversation. All she asks is that whatever I do, I protect myself and her.”
He looked away, staring straight ahead. His eyes were shining.
“I used to love it, now I hate it. It drives me crazy. I want her to care enough to ask. I want her to demand to know. I want her to be upset at the thought that I might be with another woman. I want her to show me that level of emotion.”
He blinked rapidly, stood and grabbed a guitar from a stand near a mixing console and strummed a few cords.
After a few minutes he rested it back gently in the stand.
Kyle ran his hands through his hair again.
“I’m sorry, Max.”
Max turned, and smiled at his friend.
“Max? Not Fletch? You remember my real name. This is serious.”
Kyle smiled wanly.
“Someone suggested to me, that there was some other reason why Carolyn accepted my proposal.”
Max sat down in the swivel chair at the console and turned it to face his friend.
“Someone?”
“Marco.”
“When?”
“Earlier this afternoon.”
“You just happened to run into him, and he told you that?”
“I went to his house.”
Max stared at his friend in disbelief.
“Aw geez man, you’re shitting me!”