The next six months went by like a snail crossing the street. James drove all over the Midwest while Kate stayed on the east coast. And the days dragged on. James started drinking more. He hated being without Kate.

He called Hurley one night; he hadn't talked to his childhood friend since he and Kate visited Tennessee before they got married.

"James! What the hell have you been up to?" Hurley asked, the moment he answered the phones.

James laughed to himself and replied, "Oh nothing, Hurley. Just enjoying being married and traveling around the country."

Hurley gasped; James could hear something fall to the floor in the background. "You got married and didn't bother telling me?" Hurley exclaimed, screaming into the phone.

James pulled the phone away from his ear a couple of inches and he could still hear Hurley clear as day.

"Dude why did you not tell us? Why didn't you come home for a wedding? Why didn't you tell me?"

James slowly put the phone back up to his ear and he laughed. "It was a spur of the moment thing, Hurley. We got married in Phoenix about eleven months ago. We knew each other three months but you know when it feels right? It felt right, Hugo. And I couldn't lose her," James explained.

"Well, where are you guys now?" Hurley asked.

"I'm in Michigan. Kate…I'm not sure where she is," James replied.

"Wait, how do you not know where your wife is?" Hurley asked.

"We split up. We are kind of in a pickle, Hugo."

"A pickle?"

"You know, a situation. A problem. Kate and I…we were running out of money. So we turned to the extremes," James explained, pacing around his hotel room. He hated talking about this. Admitting it. Admitting that he was a criminal now. But he currently had more than a million dollars in his backpack sitting on the bed. He was scared that he was going get caught.

"What extremes? You didn't…you didn't kill people did you?" Hurley asked nervously.

"No! No. We just…it was her idea and it was a great idea at the beginning but it got out of control. It got so far out of control that we had to split up. We agreed to only split up for six months and then meet back in Tennessee. At your house actually. We just need people to forget that it happened. We need things to cool off."

"James, what the hell did you do?" Hurley asked.

"We robbed banks. Ended up stealing over a million dollars. We want to settle down and start a family, but things got sticky during our last stint."

"A MILLION DOLLARS?" Hurley screamed. James had to hold the phone away from his ear again.

"Yeah. A million dollars."

"Wait. And you said things got sticky…" Hurley said, trailing off.

"Kate killed someone. By accident. Now they are looking for us."

"Dude…"

James shook his head even though Hurley couldn't see him. "It's fucked up. I know. We split up to let things cool down. We are gonna get back together in six months and then move on. I just hope they forget and we can live happily ever after."

They talked for a little bit longer before they hung up.

James continued driving, bidding his time until he could go back to Tennessee and start over. He stayed all over the Midwest. He spent the day drinking and at night he would court women. Try to get them to sleep with him. But once they realized that he really just wanted someone to sleep with, cuddled up next to at night, instead of someone to have sex with, they left. All he wanted was a warm body next to him; all he wanted was Kate.

This was his life and as crazy as it was, as much as he missed his wife, he wouldn't change it for anything. James lay there at night staring at the ceiling. Hoping, praying, that the days would go by faster.

All he wanted was Kate.