“This is unbelievable,” Niles snapped at me, definitely mildly irritated, maybe even more than that though that surprised me. I’d never heard him snap, not in all the years I’d known him. “I heard his voice over the phone and I couldn’t believe it, not even after Lawrence told me what was happening. I’m standing here looking at you now and I still can’t believe it.”
My patience waning, I explained, “I’m uncertain what you can’t believe since things haven’t been good between us for awhile, a long while, Niles. And I told you I was taking two weeks to think about our relationship. Then I wrote you an e-mail which, incidentally, it took me two hours to write, explaining we weren’t going to work and all the reasons why. Then I phoned you and told you we were over.”
“Perhaps, if you were feeling this way you could have spoken to me, face to face, not in an e-mail or over the phone,” Niles suggested patronizingly. “And you wouldn’t be acting like your mother, performing this drama which forced me to leave work and fly halfway around the world.”
That red film came back, this time with blinding white flashes, the anger so strong, pent up so long, I had to speak through my teeth in order not to scream.
“If you’ll remember, Niles, I did. I spoke with you about Charlie’s house and how I didn’t want to leave it and you didn’t listen. I spoke with you about how I was feeling about us, how I felt lonely even when I was with you and you didn’t listen. I spoke to you about how my father wasn’t a part of my life and here he stands.” Like my mother, I swept my arm out to indicate my father but I didn’t take my eyes from Niles as I continued. “I spoke with you about the fact we haven’t been intimate, not in months and months and how that concerned me but you didn’t seem to care.”
At these words, I felt Max’s hand convulse in mine but I ignored it and kept right on talking.
“I spoke to you about how all the times I spoke to you about all these things – and there have been lots of times I’ve spoken to you about all these things, Niles – I spoke with you about how that bothered me deeply. And I spoke with you about how it upset me nothing ever seemed to get through, no matter what it meant to me, how important it was. And, finally, I explained exactly what a timeout meant, hoping maybe you wouldn’t want me to go that maybe, in the end, you’d do something to save us, to show me you cared. But off I went and you didn’t even phone to see if I got here safely which, in the end, I did but, being as sick as I was, I actually didn’t.”
“And I explained, when you spoke to me about all these things, such as you holding onto Charlie’s house, that you needed to let them go and move on with your life and you agreed,” Niles responded.
“I agreed?” I asked, the confusion back, mingling with the anger.
“You’re wearing my ring,” Niles declared.
I stared at him a moment, thrown, not comprehending how my accepting his ring meant I agreed with him about anything. Then in order to get this done and get the heck out of there, I nodded and stuck my hand in my pocket.
“I’m glad you mentioned that,” I said, pulling out the ring, leaning forward and putting it on the table. “You can have it back.”
“I can have it back?” Niles asked, incredulous, his eyes moving back and forth between me and the ring so fast I feared he’d give himself a seizure.
“Niles, for the last time, please hear me. We don’t work. It’s over.”
Niles stared at me a second, his eyes getting cold in a way I’d never seen before, in a way that made my blood chill, in a way that Shauna wished she could go cold then he looked to Max and stated bizarrely, “I’ll double his offer.”
At this strange turn of the conversation, I was back to blinking but this time also shaking my head a little.
Max, however, didn’t seem confused by Niles’s words. Niles’s words made Max go from annoyed to angry. I knew it because I felt it.
“Seriously?” Max asked disbelievingly.
“What offer?” I queried but Niles and Max ignored me.
“Double, take it,” Niles’s eyes swept Max from head to toe then went back to his face. “Undoubtedly you can use it.”
“What offer?” I repeated.
“Go to hell,” Max bit out.
“Triple,” Niles threw out instantly.
“I always liked you, not much, but I liked you,” Mom hissed at Niles, also clearly not surprised at this turn in the exchange. “Now, your true colors shining through, I don’t like you. Not at all.”
Niles didn’t bother to look at Mom, he continued to stare at Max.
“You’d be a fool to walk away from that,” Dad advised.
“What offer?” I asked, looking up at Max.
“Your father offered this…” Niles started explaining and my eyes went to him, “man two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to disappear out of your life. I’m making it three quarters of a million.”
I gasped at this news and took a step back but Max’s hand held mine fast, he took a step forward and he was stronger than me so I went with him.
He put the knuckles of his fist to the table, leaned toward Niles and spoke quietly, cuttingly, in his rough, gravelly voice.