Steve sat on the bottom step of the stairs in his home, shifting his body slightly to the right to allow her to pass by him carrying her last bit of clothing down the steps. He watched her set the large suitcase down by the open front door and take a quick look around to be sure she hadn't left anything behind before she slowly turned to him.

Her dark hair that used to be long and luscious was now shoulder length. He hated the look on her. It wasn't so much the actual style that he hated, but the fact that it was the first sign of her infidelity that he let go unrecognized, or maybe he just chose to ignore it. Over the last couple of days since the actual breakup, he began to see the signs everywhere that he had chose to 'ignore'.

The short hair was a request from the new guy.

'How did I let that one get by me?' he thought irritably.

He stared at her, picturing the guy that had been living next-door running his hands through it. He could feel the anger rising again and looked away toward the kitchen as they sat there in silence. So much had already been said; there was really nothing more to say, except goodbye.

"Steve, I…" she began in a soft almost regretful tone and then stopped, not wanting to apologize, knowing it would be fruitless because in a way she wasn't sorry.

He looked back over at her, "I did everything you asked of me. You wanted to move in," he spread his hand out as if displaying his house, "you moved in. You wanted me to be more available; I included you in everything. I did everything you asked and the only thing I ever asked of you was to be honest with me."

"I was," she said adamantly, "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Come on, Becky," he said almost laughing. "You were fucking the guy next door while I was at work! That doesn't happen by accident!"

His choice of words stung her, they were vile and not at all what she would use to describe she and Jeff's love making, but she couldn't blame him for using them, he was angry. "I know you don't understand that, but it's true. You might have physically been here Steve, but emotionally you never were."

That was the third time she had told him that since yesterday. He still didn't believe it, it was just another excuse she used to justify her actions.

"You're not going to do anything to Jeff are you?" she asked nervously, knowing his connections in and around Hawaii.

He stared at her as if she'd suddenly turned into another person. He wasn't sure if that statement pissed him off more because she would actually think he would stoop that low over jealously or that she was trying to protect the new man in her life, both angered him equally he decided. "You really think I would do that?" he shook his head letting out a deep sigh, realizing that after all this time she really didn't know him at all.

"I don't know Steve. Sometimes people do things out of anger. He's a little nervous about it."

He couldn't help but be pleased over that. Any discomfort for that sonofabitch was music to his ears. He had no intention of involving himself in her life after this departure, but hell, if he scared the guy a little, so be it. "I'd be nervous too if I were screwing another guy's girl," he glared at her, "but then again. I'd never do anything like that." Pointing out to her once again his integrity, and her new partner's lack of.

She turned her face away, rolling her eyes, tired of his bantering of Jeff. She bent over picking up her suitcase, "You will never understand the depths of my relationship with Jeff. It wasn't about screwing, it never has been. We fell in love over conversations and a connection that neither one of us perused, it just happened, and I'm not going to apologize for it either, but I am sorry that you had to get caught in the middle of it."

He tried to hide the anger over those words that were a blow to his ego. "That's beautiful, Becky. You should write that down so you can say the same thing to him when you start sleeping with the next neighbor."

She squeezed the handle of the suitcase. "He loves me, Steve. He tells me he does. You. Never."

It was true, he'd never said it, but he showed her. He thought his actions spoke for themselves. "I guess you'll never know now, will you?" The expression on her face mirrored disappointment over his teasing her with that reply. He wondered then if things would have been different if he had said it. 'Probably not,' he thought bitterly, but he still didn't feel convinced. Women needed that for some reason, he thought. Not understating why it had to be all or nothing. He never demanded it from her. He never demanded anything from her. He accepted her the way she was. It angered him even more that he didn't get the same courtesy. "You better run along, Becky," he said dryly, "before ole' Jeff boy thinks there's something going on between us."

She turned away before the tears formed, not wanting him to see them. She knew him, and she knew she'd wounded him. She had loved him, but over time that love became frustrating when it wasn't returned. She couldn't understand why he didn't get that. "Goodbye, Steve."

He sat in silence as she closed the door behind her. The pain in his chest tripled, knowing it was really over.

It hurt because he had loved her.