He could barely make out her figure on the porch. There was only a silhouette of darkness against a background of more darkness. However, as he came closer he could begin to make out the features of her face. His heart began to pound more loudly as he stood before her. She looked cold in her oversized t-shirt. A small gust of cool air toyed with the hem of the t-shirt, making it tickle the legs of her jogging pants.
"Hi," he murmured. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and there was a small pout on her face. He knew that look. She was unhappy.
"Hi," she replied sharply. He smiled at the trace of an accent in her voice that he'd missed earlier. He'd been so swept up just being near her that he hadn't noticed…
"It's been a long time," he said. She nodded in agreement, and stepped out onto the stone path that led up to the sidewalk. He walked with her. "Do you like France?"
"It's nice."
"Oh," he said. "I've tried to find you before. When we go to visit Chloe's parents in France. But you seem pretty well hidden."
"Who were you looking for?" she asked.
"Ashley Phillips," he said.
"Then there's your problem," she said coolly as they turned onto the sidewalk. "I go by my married name there. Heist."
"Oh," he replied. "Who did you marry? I never really got the specifics."
"Jeremy Heist," she told him. "He was a professor at the university I went to who taught me Literature my Senior year. He was an American, too. Is that specific enough?"
Taylor breathed for a moment. "Where is he now? Is he here?"
"He's dead," she said.
"Oh," Taylor said quickly. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Ashley said. "We were only married a short time. It's been several years since…"
"Ashley, why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" he asked abruptly, not caring to hear her finish her sentence.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"When you left. I didn't know you had gone until too late. You never said a word," he said.
Ashley thought about it for a moment. "You had just gotten married, and I didn't want to bother you with it. You found out didn't you?"
Taylor gave her a look. "Well, you kind of figure these things out when suddenly your best friend isn't around anymore. Did you think I wouldn't notice that I didn't have you to boss me around anymore? It's HARD to miss that mouth of yours, Ash…"
Ashley smiled faintly. "I just didn't want you to think about it. I knew it might, you know, put a damper on your whole newly-wed life and all…"
"Don't give me that BS," Taylor said. "It's not like you to just walk out without a word. Why didn't you just say something?"
She kept her mouth clamped tight. She studied his feet; the worn sneakers that had been put on carelessly. Her own feet beside his in her own tennis shoes with mud caked on the sides. He sighed. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"
"It was a long time ago, Taylor," she replied.
"I talked to Isaac," he said. "He said he saw you a week ago. You've been in town for nearly a month. It wasn't THAT long ago. You could have said…"
"I'm just here until my dad passes away," she told him quietly. Taylor stopped walking.
"Huh?" he asked.
She nodded, and looked up at him earnestly. "I didn't come here for a pleasure trip. My dad's got pancreatic cancer. There's nothing they can do for him but give him painkillers and try to make him happy. He wanted me, his only little girl, to be with him in his dying days. I couldn't refuse him. I didn't come here to become another of Tulsa's socialites. I wasn't one of those in the first place. This isn't a pleasure trip or a vacation. This is business."
Taylor's mouth hung agape. Ashley reached up and pushed his jaw closed. "Be careful. A gnat might fly in and build a nest."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"We were all born to die. There's nothing we can do to change that," she said. Her eyes - dark orbs - were filling with tears. He closed his eyes.
"What happened to us?" he asked, his voice strained.
"We parted at the fork in the road," she said, staring at the lines on his face. His pretty, ethereal face that was contorted in pain.
"Do the two roads meet together again?" he asked. A tear slipped between his eyelids, and dribbled down the smooth apple of his cheek. Thoughtlessly, she lifted her hand to wipe it away. He opened his eyes and looked at her hand on his cheek. Then his gaze met hers, almost afraid.
Ashley's mind was already mapping out these roads; one hers, and one his. One is going north, one going south. She could see them merging, and their traffic colliding suddenly; violently. Absently, her thoughts wondered to something she'd studied in high school. A play. Something about violent beginnings have violent ends…
"Why didn't you stop me before I married her?" his voice came out sounding tortured. "Why didn't you tell me it meant giving you up?"
Something then in Ashley snapped. Years and years of Bible School were coming back to haunt her. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' She looked at him, feeling as though she were now standing somewhere outside of her body and looking down upon them doing something that was out of line - wrong. She snatched her hand from his cheek.
"Go home," she whispered hoarsely. "Go home to your wife and kids and family, Taylor. They're the ones who love you. They…need…"
She suddenly turned and exploded into a run. She ran to her front door and inside. She peered out the front window, watching as he came running up after her only to find that she'd disappeared. He looked up at her bedroom window, and put a hand to his cheek. He seemed to cave in on himself just then; his shoulders sagged and his head dropped limply. He walked dejectedly back to his car, got in, and drove away.
Ashley walked back to her room, her head hung in shame and tears boiling over the lids of her eyes.
