Brian stood in the doorway stunned. He couldn’t believe the sight that was in front of his eyes. Leighanne and Noelle were both there. They were yelling at each other and then Leighanne slapped Noelle across her face. When Leighanne had looked up, he was standing in the doorway. His mouth was hanging opened.

Noelle brought her hand to her cheek as soon as Leighanne’s hand fell. She was shocked and to her utter embarrassment, tears began to slide down her cheeks. At that moment she decided that all of this wasn’t worth it. She had never fought over a guy before and right then, she was getting out of the business of fighting some guy’s wife no matter how much she loved him.

It happened in an instant. Brian’s voice came from behind her in a tone that she’d never heard him use. There was so much anger in his voice that it scared Noelle.

“What the fuck was that?” Brian screamed as he walked the few steps forward, closing the gap between him and Noelle.

Ignoring Leighanne’s presence for the time being, Brian turned Noelle around to face him and lifted his hand to her cheek. He stoked the red mark that Leighanne left on her face gently with his thumb.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, calming his anger enough to talk to Noelle.

Noelle winced and backed away from him. She shook her head and turned toward the door. “I’m getting out of here.”

“Noelle, you don’t need to leave—” Brian started, but Noelle cut him off.

“No,” she whispered angrily. “You need to handle this.”

Brian grabbed Noelle’s arm and pulled her back.

“No. You need to hear this. You can’t keep running away from me when things get tough.” Brian turned back toward Leighanne who had cowered inside of herself.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Brian asked. He could feel the intense anger that he had felt moments before welling inside of him.

“I’m here because I saw the pictures,” Leighanne yelled back. “I’m here because I’m not giving up. I told you that I’m not giving up. I’m going to fight for our marriage.”

“What marriage, Leighanne?” Brain screamed. “I told you that this is over. I can’t keep being the nice guy. I can’t keep pretending like we’re ever going to be happy, because we’re not! It’s over.”

“It’s easy for you to say that now when you’ve got this little bitch standing next to you,” Leighanne yelled. The tears began to stream down her face, but Brian wasn’t going to buy it this time.

It was Noelle who spoke next.

“Fuck this,” she yelled. “I’m supposed to stand here and be called a bitch and a whore while you two work your shit out? No. Call me when all of this shit is settled Brian.”

Noelle pulled out of Brian’s grasp and stormed off toward the door. Brian suddenly felt like his lungs were collapsing. He didn’t know how to handle this situation. He didn’t know what to do, so he followed Noelle to the door, leaving Leighanne behind.

“Stop, Noelle!” Brian yelled, grabbing her arm once again. “Just stop. I love you. You know that I love you. You heard what I said today, okay? It’s you. It’s only you. Period.”

“Then why do you still have the papers, Brian?” Noelle narrowed her eyes at him willing herself not to cry. “If it’s only me that you want. Why didn’t you give her back the papers?”

“What are you talking about?” Brian spat. “I did give her the papers.”

Noelle nodded slowly and laughed to herself humorlessly. She walked back into the bedroom portion of the room, not bothering to even glance at Leighanne who was sitting on the bed sobbing. Noelle picked up the manila folder that Leighanne had given her and stormed back into the living area of the suite where Brian was waiting. She slammed the folder into his chest and then pushed past him before he could catch her again.

Brian watched as the door slammed. The thud echoed off of the dense walls in the room. Brian opened the folder, confused. These were the papers that he had given Leighanne, but he didn’t know how Noelle had gotten them. Leighanne must have given them to her, right? Why would she think that he was still in possession of them?

Instead of chasing after Noelle, Brian turned and went back to where Leighanne was sitting.

“Did you give these to Noelle? Did you bring them with you?”

Leighanne sighed. She wondered if she should tell Brian the truth or if she should lie and just tell Brian that she’d told Noelle that she had refused to sign them. She opted for the truth.

“I got them out of your suitcase.”

“What were they doing in my suitcase?” Brian seethed between clenched teeth.

“I put them there,” Leighanne muttered. “Listen, Brian. When you left, things were so unresolved. We haven’t done anything to try to work on our marriage. We haven’t gone to counseling. We haven’t even tried. We need to try. You can’t leave me.”

“I’m already gone, Leighanne!” Brian screamed. “I’m gone and I’m not coming back. This is over. You and me—we’re done. There’s nothing to work on. You work on a marriage when you still feel connected to the person, but to be completely, bluntly honest with you, there’s nothing left here. I care about you. I’ll always care about you, but that’s all it is. Period.”

Leighanne shook her head, not willing to believe him, not yet. “That’s not true. You’re going to regret saying that. It’s just—it’s not true.”

Brian was running out of options. He didn’t know how else to get it through her skull that he was really leaving her.

“You need to come with me,” he finally whispered before turning and walking out of the room. When he got to the entrance of the hotel room, he waited for Leighanne to follow him.

“Where are we going?” she asked; her voice was gravelly through her tears.

“Just come with me.”

Brian stormed out of the room and down the hallway. He pounded on a hotel room door a few down from his own until AJ finally answered.

“You are not bringing this shit down here, are you?” AJ asked, shaking his head. “Really, Brian?”

“Get Noelle out here, AJ,” Brian responded though his teeth. He was done playing nice. He was done trying to make everyone happy.

“She’s not here,” AJ responded, leaning against the doorframe of his room.

“You’re a fucking liar. Noelle!” he called into the room. “Noelle come out here, please!”

AJ shook his head, slowly. “I told you she’s not here.”

“Then where is she?” Brian demanded.

AJ shrugged his shoulders and started to speak, but then, Noelle appeared at the doorway. “What do you want, Brian?”

“Really?” Brian said, looking pointedly at AJ. “She’s not here. We’re playing that game.”

“I told him to tell you that. What do you want?” Noelle replied. When she stepped out into the hallway and saw Leighanne standing behind Brian she groaned. “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Brian? Are we really going to do this?”

“Yes,” Brian screamed out in frustration. “We’re really going to do this. Right here. Like this. Because I think that you all need to hear what I’m about to say.”

He looked pointedly at AJ, then Noelle and finally Leighanne. When none of them replied, Brian started again.

“I’m only going to make this speech one more time, so God damn it, I hope that you all get it. Leighanne, you and I are finished. I gave you those papers and I expect you to either sign them or get an attorney and get your own conditions drawn up, because here’s the thing…” Brian stopped and took Noelle’s hand into his. “I am 100 percent, irrevocably in love with this woman. Do you understand that? You and I both fell out of love a long time ago. We don’t get along. We don’t have anything in common and it’s over. Do you understand that now?”

Leighanne started to shake her head, but instead, tears were rolling down her cheeks. Finally, she was realizing that maybe she couldn’t change Brian’s mind after all.

“And Noelle,” Brian replied, turning to the dark-haired woman in front of him. “You need to listen to me too, because here it is. You need to stop being so insecure about you and me and about how I feel about you because, God help me, I am so in love with you. When you walked out that door it was hard for me to breath. This is not going to be easy, I know. It’s going to be really, really hard, but I need you to work with me and quit running away because of a past that refuses to let go. We’ve laid out plans. I introduced you to my mother for God’s sake. From the moment that I laid my eyes on you I was hooked and--” Brian stopped and turned back to Leighanne. “I’m sorry, Leighanne, after that. There was no turning back.”

Without caring who was standing there in that hallway, Noelle reached up and wrapped her arms around Brian’s neck. She wanted to kiss him, but despite the fact that Brian’s soon-to-be-ex-wife slapped her, she didn’t want to turn the knife.

As Leighanne leaned against the wall sobbing, AJ cleared his throat.

“Look, we need to get out here. We’re going to be late for the show and pretty soon, we’re going to be causing a scene. Come on, Noelle.” AJ grabbed his sister’s arm and pulled her with him. “Let’s give them another second.”

Once they were out of sight, Leighanne started to breathe a little bit lighter. “Everything that you said to her,” Leighanne gasped through her tears. “You used to feel that way about me. What changed? Why isn’t it like that? Why don’t you love me?”

Brian closed his eyes and sighed.

“Everything changed, Leigh,” he whispered. “Sometimes, it’s just not meant to be. We had some good times, but it hasn’t been good for a long time and you know it. I’m sorry, but I fell in love with someone else and when you finally let go, you will be able to do that, too.”

“But she’s tainting everything, Brian,” Leighanne sobbed. “You can’t decide to leave me because you’ve met someone else.”

“Leighanne,” Brian replied boldly. “You are I separated weeks before I met Noelle. I didn’t make this decision lightly. I tried to talk myself out of it, but like I’ve said, there’s no turning back. I’m sorry.”

Brian took a step backwards down the hall. He hated to leave her there crying, but he suddenly realized that the only way that she would understand was if he just walked away. She would misinterpret every hug goodbye as a sign that he still cared.

“Goodbye, Leighanne.”

Leighanne watched as Brian disappeared around the corner. When the hallway was empty, she melted as she finally realized that Brian was gone. She had really lost him forever and she didn’t know how she could possibly live without him.