Free If I Could Be With You by Mary Mamie Hardesty Page A

her bag. She didn’t look to see if he was watching, didn’t turn to gage the reaction of his wife. It was about her now, not them. She would get a hotel room, finish up these last two weeks of class and go home to Ohio where she belonged. When she got home she would make some changes. She was through sitting around and waiting for her life to happen.
    Her dress melted to her skin the minute she hit the hot night air and she mentally berated herself for not taking the time to change out of her heels. She hadn’t had time to call a car service so she started the walk to the subway.
    “It was fun while it lasted, right?” She whispered to herself. “Two for one off the bucket list…a younger and married man.” She took a seat on the subway in between an elderly woman with a grocery bag full of food and a young girl with headphones, eyes closed, dancing in place. Her thoughts immediately flew to their last subway ride together. His hand in her shorts, the things she’d wanted him to do. “God, I’m such a slut,” she said to herself.
    Reaching down she removed her heels and massaged her arches. She couldn’t remember how many blocks the Holiday Inn was from the train. She pulled out her cell. Two missed calls and three new texts. She scrolled through them to make sure she wasn’t missing anything important. They were all from him. 
    She put the phone down before picking it up again. She found Mel’s contact info and texted an invitation to lunch the next day. There was no way she could leave NY and go home without hashing this all out with someone and Melanie was the closest thing to a friend she had there.
    Her phone vibrated almost immediately. She hadn’t expected a response so soon, given the other couple’s excuse for not going to dinner.
    ‘On the line with Charles now. What did you do? He’s devastated.’
    Maybe she was wrong. The closest thing she had to a friend in New York apparently wasn’t that close after all.
     
    ****
     
    It took a few minutes before Hannah realized the pounding on her hotel room door wasn’t part of a dream. She sat up and went to pull her hair into a bun before realizing a few strands were somehow connected to her ear. A quick yank sent a small diamond onto the comforter next to her. Shit, the earrings. She hadn’t given them back.
    Since the pounding on the door definitely wasn’t room service and she knew her card hadn’t been rejected there was only one person it could be. Well, at least she could give him back his gift. No need to feel guilty about diamonds. She pushed off the covers and grabbed her robe, tying it tightly enough that no part of her could be considered arousing. This needed to be over quickly, she didn’t want to give him the chance to talk her into coming back. She deserved more respect than he’d shown her, more than she’d asked for herself.
    She left the latch on the door and stuck her face in the open space. He looked terrible. He had bags under the bags on his eyes. It was obvious he hadn’t slept.
    “Up all night talking with the wifey?” She baited him. The moment it was out of her mouth she knew she was being childish. She was hurt but that didn’t give her an excuse to be cruel. She’d told him to grow up; she needed to display the same maturity she’d hoped for from him. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. What do you want, Charles?”
    She saw hope in his eyes before he realized she’d used his full name to put distance between them, not out of esteem.
    “I want you to come back.”
    “You can’t be serious.”
    “I am. One hundred and ten percent serious…open the door Hannah. We need to talk.”
    “No. We don’t. I’m not angry anymore, well, I’m almost not angry anymore, but I won’t sleep in your bed under the same roof as a woman you’re married to when you don’t have to be.”
    “Please let me in?”
    He reached out and pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Where’s your other earring?”
    She