I Didn't Know I Could Break Your Heart

Tyler's apartment was nothing like what Marrietta would have expected. As Jennifer had just moved out, he had had no time to get rid of anything she had left behind or the pictures that he had of the two of them. He watched Marrietta nervously as she looked around, expecting wild accusations to come from her at any moment. But she merely shrugged off her jacket and said, "Nice place."

The walls were a dark green that seemed to absorb all the light that hit them, making the room much darker than it should have been at midday. Tyler flicked on a light, but it did little to help keep the darkness at bay.

It was also hot. Too hot. It was normal for the heat to be on, since it was winter, but it should not have been on this high. Marrietta stripped off her sweater too and then perched timidly on the edge of a black leather couch.

There was no television in the room, even though it was obviously the living room. Instead all of the furniture was pointed towards the fireplace, which was burning on even though it was quite warm enough, and pointed away from the hallway and the doors that branched off from it.

Marrietta turned to Tyler, trying to be calm and said, "So... umm... what do you want to do then?"

She looked so innocent sitting there that Tyler almost felt guilty for even asking her to come back with him, almost. He glided over to her calmly and laid a gentle hand on her arm. He could hear her heart pounding and he knew his own was matching her pace. Slow down, He told himself, This is Marrietta, not just any other girl.

"We should just talk," Tyler replied soothingly. He let his hand drop from her arm and settled down on the other side of the couch. "About... stuff. Tell me, how did you end up working at Hooters anyways? You were always so good at school and work and, you know, that stuff."

"I still am," Marrietta responded, maybe a little more defensively than she had intended to. Taking a deep breath, she went on, "I graduated top of my class but... no one was hiring and they're still not willing to hire someone so young with no experience... but I had to make rent. I had to do something.

"I was looking everywhere else for a job, believe me. But... they were the only restaurant that actually wanted to hire me and I had to make rent so... I don't know... I just went with it," She shrugged, looking sheepish.

Tyler nodded slowly, "Why not just ask Rodger to help? I know you love being independent, but come on, you've got to draw the line somewhere. Why not just ask him and then you can stop working at Hooters."

Marrietta bit her lip and shrugged again, "I don't want to owe him anything. I mean, we're going into a marriage here and if I have debts to pay him... I don't know. I don't like owing anyone anything even when the alternative is horrible, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it-"

"No, you don't!" She exclaimed, biting her lip to stop herself from crying, "It's not me being stubborn or worrying about other people thinking less about me, it's about him, okay? And I know that might be hard for you to hear, but I love him and... and it wouldn't be right, asking him for something like that and I'd feel horrible about it and guilty and I'd always know that he had gotten me that job and if I got promoted above him, what am I supposed to do? I mean, I don't live in your world, Tyler, where people give people stuff without expecting anything and just go around, handing out money to passers-by-"

"Marrietta," Tyler cut in, laughing slightly. He moved closer and took her hand, "I get it. You can't take anything from him because it's not about that." Slowly, he pushed a lock of red hair out of her face. His fingers hesitated behind her ear, "I get that completely. I mean, I would never... I could never... take anything from you."

He could hear the catch in her breath as she stared back at him. She reached up a shaking hand and held his hand to the side of her head. A long moment passed without anything happening. And then, out of nowhere, he kissed her.

The kiss was slow and gentle. It only lasted a split second before he pulled away without a word. Tyler looked away from her and made to get up, but she pulled him right back down. "I love you, too," She whispered into his ear as she pulled him in for another kiss.

A small smile spread across his lips, "But what about-" She cut him off by kissing him again and again. The small smile turned into a bigger one as she kissed him, because he knew that he had won a very large battle. He was consumed by how she was holding him.

Maybe that was why he missed the sound in the hallway that he had become so accustomed to hearing. The sound he had taught himself to hear no matter what was happening so that he was never caught. It was the sound of sneakers walking down the hallway, but it was more than that.

It was the exact volume of that sound that came with the fact that the person wearing those sneakers only weighed one hundred and ten pounds. It was the difference in the way the sound echoed because that person was only five-foot-five. It was the sound stopping right in front of the door and the key turning in the lock that signaled that there was only seconds left... only seconds...

A gasp escaped Jennifer's lips before she could stop it. Tyler looked up, almost dreamily, and turned around. His bright blue eyes met the eyes of the woman who had sworn she would never come back to him. He looked back at Marrietta, who was also staring at Jennifer, and was looking very guilty.

The sound of the door creaking as Jennifer leaned on it brought Tyler's attention back to her. Her mouth was closed now and she looked as though she was debating whether or not to say something. Tyler opened his mouth and a single word escaped him, "Jen..."

She shook her head. Her brown hair bounced on her shoulders as she did so. Suddenly she looked just like she had five years ago, when Tyler had met her. She looked innocent and scared. Back then, those two things combined had only meant two thing to Tyler: easy. Now they meant so much more.

Tyler reached out a hand to her but she just shook her head again. "Come on in, Jen. This is Marrietta. I'm not going to do anything stupid, just come in." Jennifer shook her head again, "Jen... we need to talk about this. We need to get you back-"

But he didn't have time to finish his sentence, because she was gone. She had dropped her keys on the floor, closed the door and taken off down the hall. Tyler stared at the closed door for a moment and then glanced back at Marrietta. She was giving him a very clear look that said, If you go after her, I'm not coming back. So he slid towards her on the couch and kissed her again.