"A divorce?" Alexandra finally said, scoffing. "You're serious?"
"I…I did something wrong, didn't I?" the woman asked, turning to look at Alexandra's husband. Tears welled in her eyes as she tenderly clung onto him. She looked every bit as fragile and delicate as a flower caught in a storm.
"No, of course not, love," Ethan muttered. He reached for her and ran his thumb under her eye, wiping her tears away. "You did nothing wrong."
Instead, he looked scathingly at Alexandra.
"Apologize," he demanded.
"You're making me apologize?" Alexandra echoed in shock. "After you brought some other woman into our home?"
"You're the one throwing a bitch fit for no good reason!" Ethan shot back. He helped the woman to her feet and gently combed back a stray strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear. "Don't worry, Hannah," he said, "I'll protect you."
"Ethan!" Alexandra shouted in disbelief. "You're my husband, not hers! We've known each other since middle school, and married for over a year!" She shook her head, her chest bubbling with anger. "This is our home!"
Only less than a year ago, they were the picture-perfect couple. Every memory of their love was nothing more than a joke now.
"Not anymore," Ethan evenly said. When he gazed at her, he lost every bit of warmth and affection held in his eyes as compared to when he looked at Hannah. "Get your things and leave."
There was no room for argument left. The look in Ethan's eyes was final. Alexandra wanted to scream, to shout, but that was no doubt what Ethan was looking for. She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath.
"Okay," was all she said. She got to her feet and chucked everything of hers she could find into a bag. Reaching for her dog, Sunny, she left.
As the door closed behind her, she could still hear Hannah sobbing softly.
"Maybe I shouldn't have come tonight…"
Ethan's voice was quick to follow. "No, it's fine. Stay the night with me."
A cold chuckle escaped Alexandra's lips as she headed out into the cold night.
Her feet wandered aimlessly down the streets. It was past midnight, and most people had already headed into their homes for the night. Just as she thought things couldn't get any worse, rain started to fall.
Alexandra quickly couldn't tell whether her vision was blurring due to that or due to her unshed tears.
Reaching up, she scrubbed hard at her eyes, trying to clear them when a sudden loud horn and Sunny's frantic barking caused her to look ahead in panic. Blinding headlights flashed across her vision, and Alexandra felt rooted to the spot.
The car that was headed straight for her stopped at the very last second, inches away from her thigh as she tumbled back onto the floor. Her palms scraped across the gravel, and as she hissed in pain, the car door opened.
"I am so sorry! Are you alright?"
Alexandra was just about to cuss the man out when she looked up. All the words she was about to yell quickly disappeared back down her throat when she caught herself looking into a pair of familiar dark brown eyes. Her breath hitched in her throat and she thought that the world had stopped spinning.
"Alexandra…" Her name rolled off his tongue effortlessly as though it had always belonged there, the deep baritone of his voice causing her heart to skip a beat.
Time stopped right as he bent down, his face just inches apart from hers. His Adam's apple rolled up and down as he swallowed, the beads of water droplets slowly sliding down the side of his face as their breaths mingled in the cool air.
Silence enveloped them in an instant as the air between them crackled with unspoken tension. The flood of memories engulfed them at that moment. How long had it been since they had last seen one another?
"Yeah," she muttered under her breath, her eyes still wide.
With her spoken confirmation, he muttered a quick word of excuse before reaching down. Effortlessly, he reached for her back and under her knees, carrying her bridal-style before heading back to the car. Alexandra tightened her grip, clinging tightly onto him before he set her down in the front passenger seat. Once she was settled, he opened the door, allowing Sunny into the back.
"What on earth are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" he asked as he got into the driver's seat. "In the rain too."
Alexandra pursed her lips as he drove them away from the middle of the road before safely stopping in a parking lot nearby.
"I heard that you got married," he said after a moment of awkward silence, swallowing. "Should I call your husband?"
"No!" Alexandra hurriedly said. Realizing she had spoken a little too loud, she took a deep breath and shook her head. "No. We… I…I just found out my husband has been cheating on me with another woman. So no, I don't think there's a need to call him."
"Oh." His face turned pale. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Alexandra said, laughing at the irony of this situation. "It's been a while, Caleb. How have you been?"
This was not the way Alexandra expected to meet her ex-lover, her high school sweetheart. It had been years since they last saw each other, and even more since the last time the wound scabbed over and healed. It took a while, but now that Alexandra could sit here without wanting desperately to leave, she knew that she had healed well.
But she still couldn't help the flutters in her stomach, nor stop her fingers from twisting the drenched fabric of her shirt.
"Not the best," he admitted frankly. Caleb reached to the back of the car and handed Alexandra a towel. It still smelled faintly of laundry detergent, and when Alexandra eyed it suspiciously, he said, "It's clean, don't worry."
Only then did she use the towel to dry her face and hair.
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said, her words ever courteous but ever so distant. "Is there anything I can help with? As thanks for… not running me over and providing me shelter?"
"Actually, there is," Caleb said.
Alexandra turned, raising an eyebrow. She hadn't expected him to so shamelessly take her up on her offer when they both knew it was just to be polite.
"This probably ain't the best time but… Do you want to get married?"