Her response rocketed from heart to mouth before she could contain it. “I do care.”
“Yeah, right,” he sneered as she felt his unhappiness roll out in waves. “That’s why you broke up with me and won’t go out with me.”
“I told you why,” Tamara said, trying to get free of his embrace.
“I don’t think it was the truth,” Wulfric said, tightening his grip. “I wish you’d tell me.”
She opened her mouth then shut it. She would if she could but she really didn’t know, not totally. On the night Tamara told him she didn’t want to see him anymore, she’d been hurt because she heard he’d been hanging around Players, the local strip club, while she worked at the stupid supermarket. Another factor had been her desire to do something beyond the mundane life she lived and Wulfric, different as he might be, didn’t seem to mind the trap of their lives. When he took classes out at the college, she’d hoped they would find a way out and away. But he quit, took a full-time job at a local bread factory and her hopes dried up like puddles in the hot sunshine. If she hadn’t, Tamara figured they’d be married by now, living in some little shack with linoleum on the floor just like home sweet home, and juggling bills every payday.
Part of her ached for just that, an ordinary existence––but she’d burned her bridges and had been afraid to stir the ashes in case nothing remained. Her secret, that she still loved him, wasn’t something she wanted to share.
“I can’t,” she said. “Not now, anyway. Let me go. I’m taking these donuts to Grandma.”
He snatched the sack out of her hands. “That’s what you’re doing in this back alley? Still taking shortcuts and chances?”
“I guess,” she said as she tried to grab back the donuts. “Come on, she’s expecting me.”
Wulfric laughed with a booming sound, which always reminded her of a good bass guitar, musical and deep. “Yeah, sure she is. Funny she didn’t mention it when I stopped by earlier to see how she’s doing these days.”
“I don’t believe you,” Tamara said. “Stay away from her and let go of me.”
He released her and, once freed, she immediately longed for his arms. “Ask her. She’ll tell you I was there. I do stuff for her all the time.”
“You don’t need to go over there,” she said, “It’s not going to make me change my mind.”
She started past him and he stepped into her path. “What would? I’d like to know.”
Get a career not a job, she thought, but didn’t dare say it aloud or he might do just that. Tell me you’ll take me away someplace far away and exotic, somewhere pretty and different.
“Nothing would,” she said and went around him.
Wulfric followed, his long legs keeping up with her short strides without any effort. “I’m walking you over there, then. I don’t want you to run across some gnarly dude in the dark.”
His courteous gesture pleased her, deep within, but she snapped, “I already did.”
As soon as the harsh words blasted from her mouth, she wanted to retrieve them. His calm face, shadowed beneath the street lamps, changed and she read the hurt in his expression. Tamara didn’t mean to wound him, just drive him away.
After a long silence and more than a block, he spoke. “I wonder all the time what happened to put you in such a permanent bad mood.”
Tamara snorted. “You know what. And besides, you’ve experienced my home life and you still need an explanation?”
He slowed his step. “It’s no worse than mine.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever.”