So far, my planned worked.
When Robert arrived home, Annie was sitting in the rocking chair on the porch. He hesitated there in the pouring rain.
He finally climbed the porch; staring at Annie the whole time, most likely trying to figure out why she was there.
Without a word, he indicated that she should come in. She followed him inside with me trailing behind her.
Robert was not going to make this easy. He just stood there, until Annie finally broke the silence.
“I’m sorry to show up here unexpected like this…I…I just…” she began struggling to find the words.
Robert continued to stand there, stone-faced.
This made Annie stumble over her words even more. “I…uh…Robert I guess I just…I wanted to make sure that there…was nothing else between us,” she finally blurted out.
Robert, with water dripping off of his soaking wet clothing, finally broke his silence. “Wait, wait, wait…” he said as if trying to get a grip on Annie’s reason for being there.
“Are you really asking if there’s still something here? Really? After you blind side me – telling me that you‘re seeing someone else.”
“I didn’t…intend to hurt you…I…,” Annie said, really struggling since Robert wasn’t giving her anything to go on.
“Why Annie? Why did it come to that?” Robert finally asked.
“I guess…I just needed something that you weren’t able to give me.”
“Something that I wasn’t able to give you!” Robert said. He didn’t shout, but his voice resonated as if he had.
“I gave you everything Annie and you left me empty! How dare you stand here suggesting that I didn’t!”
I was beginning to think that trying to reconcile Annie and Robert wasn’t going to work. The emotions were too raw. I feared that I may have actually made things worse.
Robert went on as Annie stood there stocked. “Annie…I actually thought you were the one. For the first time in my life, I was thinking about settling down. Then, I find out that you were leaving me…had in fact left me…” he began.
“Robert…I had no idea-” Annie started looking obviously uncomfortable.
“Let me finish,” Robert interrupted. “I spent the last few days mourning the lost of the future that I saw with you. It was hard the first day, but I got through it. The second day…still tough, but the scabs were beginning to form…”
“Now that I can finally see going forward without you…was practically glad that you were gone…and here you are. Why?” Robert’s tone was harsh; stinging in fact. I knew that it came from a place of hurt and confusion, but still, I felt sort of sorry for Annie.
Her pain came out in anger as Robert stood there staring at her as if she were some sort of pariah.
“You don’t have to be so mean,” she said.
“Maybe that’s why I turned to someone else. It’s really hard to be with someone who can just turn their feelings on and off like a faucet,” Annie shot back.
“I never knew where I stood with you. You’re like an emotional brick wall, never really showing what you feel inside. You never gave me any indication that you ever wanted to settle down. How convenient of you to say it now,” Annie said fighting back with her own stinging tone.
Robert was not willing to back down. As Annie turned to leave, he had more to say. “Well, I guess you have your answer. Coming here was a waste of time. I really don’t want nothing to do with you!”
Robert hit Annie right where he intended and I immediately regretted having Doreen give Annie the fake fortune. She had her heart set on clearing the air with Robert, maybe even considered getting back with him, but it had all blown up in her face.
As she stunk in emotion, I could see that Robert realized that he had taken it too far. He still had feelings for her after all.
“Annie, wait,” Robert said; his face finally softening up . “Did you even love me?”
Annie did not hesitate, “Of course I did Robert…I still do.”
“Then why are you here with someone else’s ring on?”
It appeared that Annie had forgotten about her engagement ring.
She put the hand with the ring behind her head, indicating that she was uncomfortable. “I…sorry Robert…I,” she began, the words not forming clearly.
“You’re engaged,” Robert said, filling in the words for her. There was no ignoring the finality in the way he formed the words.
“Yes,” Annie said, as if a secret had been discovered.
“Well…I guess that concludes this visit,” Robert said.
Realizing that Robert was telling her to leave, she obliged.
Robert followed her out to the porch. I knew that he hated to see her leave, and probably would have been willing to work things out. But his ego could not deal with the fact that Annie was engaged to another man.
He watched until Annie disappeared into her car. Before he could turn and walk into the house, Elaina was there as quick as lightening. I suspected that she had to be waiting nearby.
“Robert,” she said quietly.
Robert turned. As soon as he saw her, I knew that any chance of him reconciling with Annie was gone. He stared at Elaina totally infatuated.
