When Beth came back to my office my head was splitting in half,
and my eyes were raw.

"Mad! What is wrong?!" She exclaimed as she crossed to room to
wrap her arms around me. "Who was that man?"

I pulled back and looked at her, "You don't know?"

"Should I?" She looked down at me like I had grown another
head.

"He is Kevin Richardson." I could see her mind working trying to
figure out where she had heard the name.

"Oh, he's on the Board."

"Yeah," I said and sighed. I wasn't about to fill her in on his past
career. "Beth, I don't think I'm up to going out tonight."

"I understand, well I don't understand. But I can tell you don't.
You want me to drive you home?"

"Would you?"

"Yes, come on get your things. It's snowing like crazy outside."

"I know." I said as I stood I wrapped myself inside my coat and
picked up my purse and I flipped off the light on my desk. I didn't care
about the test that needed to graded, I didn't care about much at all
right now.

I had to give Beth credit, she didn't mention Kevin, or the odd
events of the night until I was comfortably ensconced in my oversized
couch in my pajamas.

"Madi, I hate to bring it up, but I have to know. What happened
tonight?" Beth asked me quietly.

I didn't look at her at first, I took a sip of wine and stared out the
picture window beside me. "He is one of my ex's best friends." I said
quietly. I didn't think she had heard me until I looked at her. I laughed
lightly as she stared at me.

"I'm proud I'm friends with you. You know beautiful people." She
said with a wicked grin and I shook my head. "I'm guessing that you
didn't except him to be there tonight."

"That's an understatement."

"Does your ex know where you are?" She asked her eyes going
wide, and I shook my head. "Oh no. Madison, he didn't hurt you did he? I
mean is that why you left him because he hit you?"

"No!" I couldn't imagine Alex raising a hand to any woman, "No,
he never, he would never do anything like that."

"Okay, good. What is his name?"

"Who my ex?" I asked and she nodded, "Alex."

"Alex is short for Alexander right?" I nodded. "Why did you leave
him?"

I sighed again, I didn't know how to tell her the whole truth
without telling her everything. I didn't want to have to explain the hows
and whys. "He wanted me to stop work so that I could spend more time
with him."

"Okay I'm confused, that's bad how?" She asked and palmed her
wine glass.

"I didn't want to stop everything I had worked so hard to get to
end up with nothing to show for it. It's a long and convoluted story. One
that I have no intention of going into tonight."

"Okay, just one more question." She paused until I looked at her,
"Why did you leave him if you still love him?"

I stared at her dumbfounded. "Am I that obvious?"

"The look on your face when you saw Kevin standing there
tonight kinda clinched it." She said with a shrug.

"I felt like he needed more than I could give him."

"And yet, you loved him so much?"

"More than he will ever know." I said my voice cracking. I stood
trying to run from the tears.

"I'm sorry Mad."

"I am too." And I was. I missed Alex so much sometimes that my
whole body ached for him. It was the farthest thing from a sexual need. I
missed smelling his cologne in the morning before he went to the
studio. I missed hearing his bawdy singing in the shower. I sniffled, the
worst of it was I missed his snoring. I lost the fight against my tears as
Beth wrapped her arms around me. I sobbed, my body shaking with the
force of my emotions as we stood there.

I laughed weakly sometime later when I realized that Beth was
crying with me. I pulled back and looked at her. "Thank you."

"That's what friends are here for." She said with a smile. She
dried the tears on my face with a tissue and looked at me. She suddenly
looked so much older than her 29 years, "I promise you everything will
work out. Okay? If it's meant to be it will work out better than you could
ever imagine." I nodded and sniffled. She looked out the window and
sighed. "Looks like I'm stuck here tonight." I followed her gaze and
realized that it had snowed at least 2 feet since we had gotten home.

"Yeah, I'll get the guest room ready."