Status: All finished! :)

One More Night

Chapter 10

He’d had every intention of telling her. He’d wanted to do something sweet where they would get to talk, and he could bring up the fact that he had to leave in a week and a half. As much as it would pain him to do so, he knew he needed to break this off with her, and going back to New York was the best excuse to do so. He wouldn’t have to try to explain that while he was crazy about her he couldn’t be with her. It would kill her for him to have to explain now that he was a no-good, grade-A asshole, who was actually married, and have to see the disappointment and the pain on her face and know she’d never want to have a thing to do with him ever again. He still hadn’t come clean to Robyn either, and that was absolutely killing him; tearing him apart inside in a way he didn’t know was possible.

Now he would have to wait until tomorrow, but he was glad that he’d had the night just for the two of them. Things wouldn’t be the same without getting to look forward to seeing Bree somewhere and holding her, talking to her or kissing her. It would be hard, but at the same time it was what had to be done. His parents would be beyond disappointed if they knew his marriage was falling apart and instead of fixing it he was running around with someone else. He’d have to at least make an effort to try and make things right, but as long as Bree was on his mind he would do no such thing, and Marc knew it.

“About damn time you got home Marc – where the hell were you?” Robyn hissed at him as soon as he was in the door. He hadn’t expected her to wait up for him, and had jumped at her voice coming from the pitch-black kitchen.

“I was out with a couple of friends – is that a problem?” he asked, and she glared at him, wearing her glasses for the first time in far too long. At times he missed the old Robyn that he’d fallen in love with years ago, and seeing her like this; her hair thrown up in a pony tail and her glasses on reminded him of that Robyn. But her words reminded him that he’d lost that Robyn, and that was why he was sneaking in late from being with Bree.

“Yes, it is,” she informed him, standing up and walking over to him.

“Want to know why?” Marc swallowed hard, not sure what was going to come out of her mouth.

“Why?”

“Because you smell like perfume, Marc. I’m not stupid, okay,” he felt his heart sink as the words echoed in his head, and he felt himself start to sweat in panic.

“What did I tell you about those strip clubs? I told you to stay the hell away from them – you may as well be fucking some whore as going in one of those places,”

Marc could have laughed in relief as she said that, as disgusted as he was with himself. He should just tell her, come clean and get it off his chest, but he couldn’t put Bree through the shit show that Robyn would cause.

“Robyn—”

“No, you know how I feel about it and you won’t respect me. You keep taking off and not telling anybody where you’re going and what you’re doing and it’s really frustrating me Marc. It was bad enough during the season you didn’t have any damn time for me but now it’s summer and there’s no hockey you still can’t find a moment for me,” Robyn was working herself into tears now, and Marc pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back softly.

“Robyn that’s not true – I’ve tried to spend time with you this summer… you’ve been doing lots of stuff on your own too when I’ve been here,” he reminded her, but immediately realized his mistake as she shoved him away.

“Don’t you dare turn this on me Marc,” her voice was cold and harsh, making Marc groan internally at his own stupidity. He should’ve just taken the blame and left it at that.

“I’m not trying to, I’m just saying—”

“No. Don’t; I’m done with this,” she turned on her heel and retreated to their room, slamming the door after her. Marc ran his hands through his hair before finding a spare pillow and some blankets, making himself comfortable on the sectional. He’d seen this coming at some point, and even as he stripped down to his boxers and crawled under the blanket he knew he’d deserved a lot worse than this. As much as he hated to do it, he’d break the news to Bree that things couldn’t continue, and he’d go back to New York and hopefully get everything straightened out.

He’d spent the entire morning trying to smooth things over with Robyn, Bree hardly crossing his mind for more than a few seconds at a time; never long enough to find somewhere quiet and alone to get a phone call to her. He couldn’t text her; this was something he wanted to do in person, as much as it would kill him he knew he owed her at least that much.

What turned into a morning trying to smooth things over turned into several days, and the day before they were set to leave for New York Marc found himself panicking trying to figure out what he was going to say to Bree. That and he needed to figure out how to get into town to see her without upsetting Robyn even more or tipping her off that something was going on.

After lunch he managed to find a few minutes to go for a walk down the road. Once he was out of sight of the yard he pulled out his phone and dialed Bree’s now familiar number. As soon as he heard her voice on the other line Marc felt himself start to relax, and a small smile found its way onto his mouth.

“Hey Marc! How are you?”

“Could be better. Look, um, I need to talk to you,” he felt awful saying the words. It was the stereotypical, leading to a break-up type of line that he didn’t want to use, but he didn’t know how else to let her know he needed to tell her something important.

“Um, okay. What is it?”

The confusion in her voice was evident, tugging at Marc’s heart even more. “It’s… I need to talk to you in person about it Bree. Can, can I come see you this afternoon?” he found himself chewing on his lip as he made his way down the road.

“Yeah, sure. Um, Marc?”

“Yeah?”

“This… I think I know what you want to talk about,” her voice was soft and thick with emotion, choking Marc up a little bit as well.

“Bree, Bree just wait until I get there, I can’t do this over the phone,” he whispered, and after getting a shaky confirmation hung up. He made his way back to the house quickly, trying to figure out a plan to get into town without causing any suspicion from his already suspicious family.

“Hey, Jord what are you doing?” he asked as he got into the house, finding Jordan slipping into his shoes and grumbling.

“Need to grab some shit in town,” he grumbled.

“I can go,”

Jordan looked up in surprise, before raising an eyebrow and looking his older brother over. He’d jumped at any chance to go into town, as well as spending long periods of time there, which was unusual for Marc, and it had both Eric and Jared curious, as well as the girls.

“Okay… why?”

“Because I needed to grab a few things too – I was gonna wait till we got back to New York but if you need shit too I might as well go now,” he shrugged, and after a moment Jordan nodded, passing Marc a twenty and the short list of stuff he needed before Marc grabbed his keys and was out the door.
He sped the entire way to town, and grabbed the few necessities before racing to Bree’s. She let him in immediately, but contrary to their normal behavior she wrapped her arms around herself and kept her distance from him once he was in the apartment. That tore him apart without saying a single word.

“Bree… Bree I’m so sorry,” he took a step toward her but she shook her head and took a matching step back.

“Please Marc, just say what you need to say,” Bree was hardly holding herself together, and Marc could tell.

“I just… I leave for New York. Tomorrow,” her head shot up and her eyes widened in disbelief, before the hurt started to become evident.

“Tomorrow?”

“I know, Bree I know – I was going to tell you the other night when I took you to the lake, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to ruin such a perfect night with news like that,” he couldn’t make his voice stronger than a whisper, not when the girl who held his heart in her tiny hands looked ready to break down.

“Why… I mean…”

“I don’t want to put you through all of this Bree. You’re an incredible girl – and you deserve a lot better than me. I just want you to be happy; you mean the world to me, and you have no idea how much it’s killing me to say this right now. All I want to do is kiss you senseless and I wish I could just stay here and never have to say goodbye,” he admitted, and with a sob she ran into his arms and buried her face in his chest.

“Why does it have to be goodbye Marc? I mean, long distance sucks but it could work,” she was grasping at straws, and they both knew it.

“Because it’s painful Bree, and I don’t want to do that to you. Not when you could find someone who could be there for you and deserve you when I don’t,” Marc choked out, and it was all he could do to hold Bree while she cried. She only let herself break down for a few minutes, before sniffling aggressively and pulling herself from his arms. Marc wiped the few rogue tears from her cheeks, wishing that things were different, but knowing they couldn’t be.

“Well, thanks Marc. For at least having the guts to do this in person and not be a douchebag,” she managed a slight laugh, too upset to notice the way that Marc paled and looked sick at her words. He was glad for that, not wanting to upset her worse, especially not when he really was being a douchebag for taking the easy way out and not telling her about Robyn.

Instead he nodded, and pulled her in for one last hug before saying goodbye and leaving her apartment.