There was a deep ache in the man's chest seated in the shadows of a bar. It was anxiety-driven waiting for someone you had vowed never to see again.
When the voice came through the other end of the phone, Harold Bright had to acknowledge it would never be through. Tanya would always have some pull over his character. It had been so long since his last meeting with the serial bride that Harry felt twisted inside.
Would she still look the same as he had last seen her? Did she still feel anything for him? Had she regretted every moment of their time together?
The worry kept building up in his chest; Harry felt as if he would be sick. Gerald still didn't know where the man had been going that day. He didn't know that the woman had been on the other end of the phone; When Tanya was quick about setting up a meeting for the two people. It almost felt as if she had already prepared for this moment.
That's why the anxiety kept clawing at his insides. All the deep concerns of the past tried to surface.
"Harry?"
It was a jolt that brought the man from the depths of his thoughts; A woman standing off near the table where he was seated. Her hair was short and blonde; at first, he thought it was a waitress that had approached. After a long pause of staring at the woman, he pushed himself out of the chair with both arms.
His eyes focus on the person standing near him. "Tanya, I was almost wondering if you weren't coming." The woman's face looked confused by what he had just said. "What do you mean? I made it on time." Harry's brow arched at that response.
"You're thirty minutes late."
"Oh, come now, that's on time for me."
The man couldn't help but smile at what she had said. She was still the same as she had always been. Her hair was different, and her eyes were worn, but she was still the most put-together woman in the room.
"Are we to take this slow?" Bright asks as he begins to seat himself back down in the chair. He didn't dare move further toward the woman or offer to help her into hers. As much as he wanted to be courteous, he was trying to keep some distance. "Why do you think I asked you here?" Tanya answered his question with her own.
"It's been five years since I last saw you, considering how we left things. I honestly can not fathom why you've asked me here today."
There was a hesitance in how the woman stood near the small square table. Her eyes lowered to the table as she began to seat herself, clutching a purse under one arm as she was trying to find the words to say what she had come to say. "D-did you think this was.." Tanya's eyes came up and; stared directly at the man's face. "You thought I called you here for an affair?"
It was clear the words made the man slightly flustered. "I-I have no idea why you called me here today. Gerald informed me of your calls and found a box of our things. I am not here to assume anything, but perhaps you're dying."
"I'm not dying, Harry! I'm here for Donna!"
"Donna? Why are you here for Donna?" The Englishman was more confused than he first had been about Tanya's calls. Why in the world was Tanya here for Donna, of all people?
"She is my friend, and you both had an affair at one point in your lives."
Harry was more lost than he could ever possibly have thought to be. "T-this meeting is about an affair with Donna Sheridan...and not us?"
"Yes."
"What does she have to do with us having to meet?"
"She has a child of a certain age...and she could be yours, possibly."
There was a moment of silence between the two people. It took the man a moment to remember his brief affair with Donna. Every time he tried, he brought himself back to the other woman.
"W-why are you telling me this?"
When Tanya realized the age of her friend's daughter, she couldn't help but remember a fight a decade before. She knew of the affair between Donna and Harry; After Tanya had left the Englishman for her first husband. Her best friend and her ex-lover fell into each other arms for comfort. Everything after that seemed to fall into place in her mind.
"I-I just thought you should know you may have a daughter."
"Might...I might be the father of someone I haven't spoken to in ten years or more!" Harry was almost livid and rightly confused by what was happening. "If Donna wanted me to know of a child, she would be here telling me I have a child!" Before, the man dared try to jump up and leave right then. Tanya reached out to grab the man's sleeve, letting her purse drop on the floor as she used both hands.
"Wait, please...don't go yet."
Bright hadn't gotten the chance to attempt his escape. Noting the woman's grasping his sleeve, he could see the distress on her face. There was something more to this meeting than she wanted to tell him outright.
"You told me I have an illegitimate child; What more needs to be said?"
The woman began to tear up as she was holding Harry. She was breaking down quickly, and the man was even more confused. "A-are you gay?" Tanya's question was low but audible enough for him to hear it.
"Am I gay?"
Had she put the two and two together to understand he was living with another man? "Yes, Harry. Are you gay?" She asks again, but this time seems even more distressed.
"I feel as if I answer that you will cry harder."
Tanya pulled her hands back and buried her face in them. "It's true; every man I'm with turns gay!" There were muffled words, but it was easy to understand where the woman was going with them. Harry couldn't help but laugh at everything that was happening. Extremely; grateful that the bar they were in was completely dead.
"Dear heavens, I assumed we were going to end up in a hotel room, and all I had to tell you to ease this situation was that I'm in a relationship with another man."
Tanya's head came up, and she shoved the man across from her. "That's not funny...none of this is funny. Why does this keep happening!? You and now my current husband. I shouldn't have this kind of luck!" Harry was smiling until she told him about her husband. "What?" He was shocked.
"What do you mean he's gay; Why did he marry you if he was gay!?" That was partly an offensive question; but also a straight one. "I-I don't know, and I don't know what to do." Harry glared at the woman, considering what she had just said.
"You leave him if he's no longer being the husband you married. You end the relationship, Tanya."
"I-I can't do that; he's been so good to me."
There it was; it was written all over the barely smeared mascara. "You would rather stay with a man who wants so little of you; than someone who would be willing to give you everything." His chest was tightening again, and that was the sign to leave. "No, no...I can't." Bright pushed his chair back before standing up quickly to step away from the now blonde.
"We've been here long enough, less than an hour, and I may have a child, and the woman I once loved...and still love is married to a gay man; This has been a rewarding experience." Bright began to back away as Tanya stared at the man perplexingly.
"Give it another five years before ringing me again."
It had been a very close call for the man about to leave when the woman gasped vocally. She had barely caught what Bright had said, but she took the time to think about his words.
"Y-you still love me?"
Harry had turned his back to the woman when she asked him that question. His fist clenched, knowing he couldn't just have let himself run right then and there.
"But, you're gay...and living with a man."
"No."
He visibly shook his head but didn't turn back for the woman to see. "I-I am in a relationship with a man; that I care for deeply, while I still love you, without question or reason...but I am not gay; I am complicated. I am a bisexual man who has only wanted one thing in my life, and it just so happens to have been in the form of a man. Rather than the woman I have pined after for too many years."
The woman was about to stand when Harry turned back to look at her. His dark brown eyes met her tear-stained hazel before a smile came to Harry's features. "I love you, and the most depressing thing is that I would do it all again with you. If only you would fathom ever wanting me like you did your truly gay husband."
Tanya didn't tear up at the man's words, considering the hurt she felt by them. Instead, she pushed herself up to clear the distance between them. "Five years, and you still think you were worth the pain?"
"Yes."
The blonde didn't hesitate to slap the man across the face without question. "Y-you're.." Tanya wanted to lie; she wanted to complete that sentence, but she was gasping and breaking down. "Am I wrong?" He asked bitterly before reaching to grab her by the waist.
"Tell me I am wrong, and I will never speak to you for the rest of my days." Tanya couldn't look at him directly; her head stayed turned low as she was tearing up. "Tell me the truth that I am wrong, and you want nothing more to do with me."
"You're-you're not wrong; you're not...Harry, I'm sorry." She was beginning to cry as the man was holding her. "I-I shouldn't have called you here; this was a mistake."
"The only mistake is that you called me here on pretenses. Instead of the real reason why you wanted me before you."
"Real reason?" Tanya's head raises slightly to look at the man. "What is the real reason, Harold?"
"That you can't live without knowing that I still love you. I would give up everything for you; Tanya, my Tanya. You are a vain, spoiled woman. If only you'd come much sooner than now. I would be willing to risk it all again."
"What do you mean?" Something about the man's words causes the woman to realize she made some mistake.
"The man I'm with, Gerald Holster. We're getting married." Her breath was uneasy at what he had said. "Y-you're.." She shifted hard, tearing herself from Harry's grip. "I-I have to go." Tanya turned, going after her purse and knocking over a chair as she rushed out of the area.
Harry stood staring blankly at where the woman had just been. He knew he had done the right thing; by telling her the truth but knowing she was so close after so long made the man's heartache.
"Why didn't you come sooner; Why am I still waiting for you?"