“What did you say?”
Paul drew himself to his full height, which was an inch taller than his former professor.
“I said you don’t deserve her.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
Gabriel threw his china coffee cup in frustration. It smashed on the pavement.
“Every night when I fall asleep with her in my arms, I thank God she’s mine. Every morning when I wake up, my first thought is that I’m grateful she married me. I will never be worthy of her. But I spend every day trying my damnedest. You were her friend when she needed one. But listen to me when I tell you, Paul, you do not want to push me.”
A long silence passed between them. Gabriel held on to his temper as the result of a Herculean effort.
Paul was the first to look away.
“When I first met her, she was so jumpy. I felt like I had to whisper just so I wouldn’t scare her. She isn’t like that anymore.”
“No, she isn’t.”
Paul hunched his shoulders. “She was telling me about her program at Harvard over lunch. She loves it.”
“I know that.” Gabriel’s expression grew even darker. “And I know you want her. I’m telling you, you can’t have her.”
Paul met his gaze. “You’re wrong.”
“Wrong?” The Professor challenged him, taking a step forward. They were now mere inches apart, the Professor’s posture angry and threatening.
“I don’t just want her. I love her. She’s the one.”
Gabriel stared at him incredulously. “She can’t be the one. She’s my wife!”
“I know.”
Paul looked over the Professor’s shoulder at Woodstock Road, shaking his head.
“I met a pretty, sweet, Catholic girl. The kind of woman I could introduce to my parents. The kind of woman I’ve been looking for my whole life. I treated her right, we became friends, and when an asshole came along and broke her heart, I was there. She cried on my fucking shoulder. She fell asleep on my fucking couch.”
Gabriel snapped his jaw shut furiously.
“The semester ended and she followed her dream to Harvard. I helped her move. I found her a part-time job and an apartment. But when I finally told her how I felt, when I finally asked her to choose me, she couldn’t. Not because she didn’t care about me, or didn’t feel anything. But because she was in love with the asshole who broke her heart.”
Paul laughed without amusement.
“And this guy, he’s bad news. He fucks around. He treats her like dirt. He drinks too much. For all I know, he seduced her for kicks. He was involved with a professor who hits on her students and is into BDSM. So who knows what he does to my girl behind closed doors? When he leaves her, I’m ecstatic, thinking now she has a chance to be with someone who’ll be good to her. Someone who’ll be gentle with her and never, ever make her cry. Then, to my fucking astonishment, the asshole comes back. He fucking returns. And what does he do? He asks her to marry him. And she accepts!”
He kicked at the pavement in frustration.
“That’s my life, in a fucking nutshell. Find the perfect girl, lose the perfect girl to an asshole who broke her heart and will probably break it again and again. And then get a fucking invitation to their big-ass wedding in Italy.”
Gabriel ground his teeth together. “In the first place, she is not your girl and she never was. I don’t have to justify myself to you or to anyone else. But out of respect for my wife, who seems to care about you, I’ll admit I was an asshole. I’m not that man anymore. I never fucked around on her, not even once, and I’m sure as hell not going to break her heart again.”
“Good.” Paul shuffled his feet. “Then let her finish her program.”
“Let her?” Gabriel’s voice dropped to a near-whisper. “Let her?”
“She might decide to give up or take time off or something. Encourage her to continue.”
Gabriel’s eyes flashed. “If you have information you want to share, Mr. Norris, I suggest you spit it out.”
“Julia feels guilty about making her grad program such a high priority.”
Gabriel scowled as the import of Paul’s words became clear.
“She told you this?”
“She also said that she doesn’t have any friends.”
“How convenient for you. Are you interested in continuing to be her friend?”
Paul grimaced. “This isn’t fucking convenient. Don’t you get it? I love her and because I love her, I have to listen to her worry about making you happy. You, the asshole who left her.”
“I’m not exactly happy she chose to confide in you.”
“If she had friends in Cambridge, she wouldn’t need to. And anyway, my friendship with her has to end.”
Gabriel rocked on his heels, momentarily taken aback.
“Did you come to this decision yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Have you told her?”
“I wouldn’t do that to her before her lecture. That would be cruel.”