Claim 2: Volume Two Read Online Free Page A

interrupt you at the office.  I know how important your job and reputation is, so I came here.  I was looking at pictures when you came home.”  Taking the picture out of my pocket, I slide it across the table.  She stares at it for a second before picking it up, smiling.  Smiles are a good sign.  It could be worse.
    “This was a really good time.  Do you remember that old guy that kept asking us to smoke pot with him?” she laughs.
    “Oh, I remember.  I also remember that you smoked with him.  Then you laughed for two hours straight.  I was a little worried you had some kind of reaction, but you looked so happy.”
    “That was the first and last time I ever did any kind of drug.  The laughing was nice, though.  I’ve not laughed that much in … ever.  That was the only time,” she giggles, putting the picture back on the table.
    “Is that the only thing you remember about that weekend?” I ask, testing the waters.
    “No,” she whispers, taking another drink from her glass, refusing to meet my eyes.  Ding. Ding. Ding.
    “What else, Loren?” I push.
    “You asked me to marry you.  We left right from our trip, went to the retreat and got married right then and there.”
    “Do you remember how much you loved me in that moment?  How you couldn’t wait to be my wife?  Lo, I need you to remember that.  I need you to remember that kind of love,” I say, almost pleading.
    “I did, Jordan.  After you left, I remembered.  They nearly killed me.  I was worried at first, thinking you’d come back, but you didn’t.  What I remember more than those feelings is what I went through after you threw me away like a piece of trash.  For another woman, no less.  Do you know what that does to a woman’s self-esteem?  The kind of love I felt for you is buried so far underneath the hate.”
    Swallowing hard, I know she’s right, but she doesn’t know everything.  She only knows what I told her, and the majority of that was a lie.  A fucking lie to protect … her.  “Not everything is as it seems,” I mutter, wondering if I tell her everything if she’ll think I’m lying to get her back.  I need her to believe me, but I’m not sure she will.
    “And not all endings are happily ever after.  Sometimes, they’re just done.”
    “I don’t want it to be done.  I made a mess, Loren.  Please.  Give me a chance to clean it up.”
    “You had a year, Jordan.  An entire year.  You did nothing.  Then, out of the blue, when I finally meet someone I think I can have something with, you want to swoop back in and confuse the hell out of me?  That’s not fair.”
    Confuse her?  She’s fighting.  Not me, but her own feelings.  I can work with this.  It means I have a chance.  Even if it’s a small one, it’s there.
    “Tell me you hate me and never want to see me again.  I’ll leave, sign your papers and you’ll never see me again.  Just say the words, Loren.”  If I give her an out and she takes it, I mean it, I’ll go, but if she doesn’t, that’s all the faith I need that I can win her back.
    “Jordan,” she says exasperated, “Please.”
    “Please what?  Please leave?  Please stay?  Give me more, Lo,” I demand.
    “I can’t,” she whispers, finishing off her glass.
    Resting my elbows on my knees, I watch her, studying her body language for a hint of what she wants, but everything she’s putting out there is contradicting at most.  Her face looks pained, like she can’t make the decision, yet her body language is closed off, as if she’s not willing to give an inch.
    “I can’t tell you to leave,” she finally mutters.  She shakes her head when the grin appears on my face.  I try to hide it, but this is exactly what I wanted to begin with.  A chance.  Even though she doesn’t want to, or is afraid to, she’s going to give it to me.
    “It’s because you love me,” I state.
    “Don’t get cocky.  It’s because I’ve wondered every day for the last