Thanks for all the fab reviews. Here's a short, but significant update.
Another long day at work tomorrow but I'll post a new chapter at some point in the day.
Wednesday Evening
"It's not what you think, Ruth."
She stares around the bedroom. Half seeing. Half knowing.
When her eyes come to rest on the doorway, it is empty.
She finds him downstairs, slumped on the sofa, head bowed.
"You didn't answer the door with no shirt on?" she asks.
"No."
"I saw your scar…upstairs… in the bedroom?"
"Yes."
"Harry….I don't know you," she says quietly.
And it's the quietness, the disappointment that pierces him.
"Ruth, please, I promise you it's not what you think."
"And what do I think, Harry?" her voice is filled with accusation, "what am I thinking right now?"
"You came here on Monday," he says looking up at her, "came here and apologised for doubting me, for blocking me out. You wanted to say sorry."
"That's not what you said before."
"No, but this is the truth."
She waits for more, truth or not.
"I asked you to leave. But you wouldn't. Not until you had done what you came here to do."
"What did you think I'd come here to do?" she asks, her alarm apparent.
"I didn't think anything. I didn't know. I just wanted you to go."
"But I didn't go?"
"No."
"So what happened, Harry?"
"You kissed me."
"What?"
"You kissed me."
She looks at him and she doesn't know whether to believe him anymore.
"I tried, I swear I tried," he breathes, "but…."
"But what?"
"I'd wanted you for so long," he raises his hands to his head.
"Oh god," she says.
"No, Ruth, I swear…I swear it was consensual."
Her eyes bore into him.
"So why can't I remember, Harry?"
He stands. He walks away. He faces the window.
The silence is overwhelming.
"WHY?"
"I drugged you."
She can barely hear him. She can barely believe him. She can barely breathe.