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That Problem With Leaving and Staying

That smile pressed into her shoulder turned into a smirk and when she felt his teeth graze her skin lightly, she closed her eyes and shook her head.
“I told you you’d have a problem with leaving in the morning,” he laughed slightly, pulling her back under him and looking down on her closed eyes.
“I don’t have a problem with leaving, you keep telling me that I do.” She wouldn’t open her eyes, if she opened them she’d have to face the thing she was trying to avoid.
“Then why are you still here?” he asked. She could see him smiling even though she wouldn’t look at him.
“Because you’re on top of me.”
“And you couldn’t push me off?” he snickered and she didn’t want to pretend anymore.
“That wouldn’t be polite, now would it?” she asked, returning a smile, opening her eyes to see eyes that were entirely too-childlike for the chiseled face they were encased in. He was kissing her good morning before she could speak again. It was a good morning-thanks for last night-not worried about morning breath, kiss that sapped her of any strength to want to leave.
“Breakfast?” he asked, she could only nod.

Later that afternoon Fran packed up her hotel room and made her last minute arrangements over the phone as she gathered her things. She confirmed her hotel reservation and show times, wanting to have enough time to get there and not have to automatically run on stage.
While she was speaking to the manager of one of the venues there was a knock at the door. She continued to talk, opening the door without looking to see who it was, turning and just waving them in as she finished up her conversation. She heard the door close and finished up with the person on the other end of the line. When she turned to see who it was, she dropped her phone.
“AJ? Wow, I uh, wasn’t expecting you,” she stammered, grabbing her phone quickly and walking it over to her bag on the entry table.
“I guess you weren’t expecting me last night either,” he replied cautiously.
“Were we supposed to meet up then?”
“I thought we were.”
“But you didn’t tell me that,” Fran retorted honestly, with a slight of smile to her lips. She was right on that count, AJ had to admit.
“So what did you do last night?” He tried to be casual, but that was something that usually didn’t work out for him.
“I hooked up with someone, partied a bit, you know,” Fran replied nonchalantly.
“Hooked up as in…what?” AJ crinkled his eyebrows as he stood there, watching as the girl of his dreams, nightmares and reality began to break his heart.
“Met a guy, went and danced, went back to his hotel room, do I need to go into further detail for you?” Fran snapped, quickly walking away from the door and back to the closet she had been emptying earlier. AJ followed, a few steps behind, unsure that he had any voice left to complain.
“You slept with someone?”
“Yes, I did.”
“But what about, I don’t know, us, this thing, we had going?”
“What about it?” Fran looked directly into his eyes and was shocked by the hurt she saw registered there. Guilt panged into her veins and she remembered what sorry felt like.
“I thought we were going to try and get along,” AJ nearly squeaked.
“I’m not going to be tied down,” Fran stated flatly, folding a pair of jeans and placing them in a pile, “We didn’t make rules, so I didn’t break any.”
“So that makes it okay?”
“Look, AJ, you’re a nice guy, I was a nice girl, I got screwed around on, all the time, I’m not going to make the same mistake again. I was faithful, I’m gonna be the bad one this time, I’m going to hold the control in the relationship. I’m going to call the shots.” Guilt pinged back and forth between her words as she realized that she couldn’t make herself look at him.
“And I’m supposed to just go along with that then? I’m supposed to be the one screwed around on and wait for you to give me the time of day?”
“Yup, and if you don’t want to, you know where the door is.” AJ threw up his hands in disbelief, shaking his head.
“I can’t believe that I defended you, that I thought this was possible. You’re not the girl I thought you were.”
“No, I’m not, because I’m not a girl, AJ, I’m a woman, a full grown, adult, who can make her own choices and decisions. I want a chance to play the field, I’ve never done that before, I’ve done the whole commitment thing, and I’ve been the only one committed. It’s your call, but if you stay or you go, remember, you deal with the consequences.” AJ snarled and whirled around, too angry to look at her.
“I’m, fuck it, I’m out of here.” Fran watched him go and felt that guilt prickling in the back of her neck. She heard her phone ring and hurried to answer it, smiling when she read “Marshall” on the display.
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