Just walk away

Just say goodbye

Don't turn around now you may see me cry

I mustn't fall apart

Or show my broken heart

Or the love I feel for you…

Just Walk Away (Celine Dion)

Days passed, and the wound in his side healed. Quickly. Too fast, in fact. Of course, Gaston wasn't going to lie around forever, especially since food supplies were running low and he had to hunt again, but Belle's more and more explicit talk that they should live a "normal" married life was driving the man to a dead end.

Gaston himself did not understand what was wrong, what happened to him and why he became so "strange". But he could not overpower himself, especially when Belle had those terrible conversations that there is no love, but there is an instinct to reproduce, that all animals live themselves, give birth to cubs and do not think...

And the last time it was something... Gaston even from the memory of that case felt how his cheeks burned. Belle had brought the book from the town, but she wouldn't let him see what was in it, she read it secretly. When the hunter did catch his wife and took the book away, he looked into it... God! There were drawings of naked men and women!

Belle persuaded him that it was just a scientific medical book, that thanks to it Belle had read that, as she said... that physiologically one man is no different from another, and women too. That it's all fairy tales about the one and only, and you should just follow your instincts and be happy.

Gaston took the book away and had a long argument with the salesman. But it still wasn't the way.

After all, people are not animals…

And he liked Belle because she was different from the rest of the town, and not only because she was beautiful.

He only realized that now that she'd changed so much. Changed because she was disappointed in her dreams...

The biggest problem wasn't even that Belle didn't love him. Gaston didn't even know himself if he loved her. He had never thought about it before, but now... For true love one must love at least one. It was easy to dream of the dragons and monsters he would save his wife from. But the reality was that he was afraid to go against the laughter of the village idiots, so he might as well have run away from a dragon or monster... And that truth about himself was unpleasant.

Oh, if Belle had read him that book! Maybe there would be advice on how to awaken true love in him and her! Isn't that love only for aristocrats? That would be too unfair.

Gaston walked past the market to the bookstore to pick up a map of their area. Belle would read the names, and he would figure out the roads himself. After all, even animal trails were amenable to him. It was already midday, and there were not many people in the street, or rather almost none at all. The little town ate lunch at the same time, everything was so predictable.

"Gaston!" A girl's voice called out to the man.

A blonde girl in a green dress came down from the porch and stood across from him.

"Hello, Gaston."

"Hello..." he stammered, remembering the name.

"Paulette," the girl said.

"I remember," the hunter lied.

"Oh, Gaston..."

She stood and just stared at him, not making an attempt to touch his arm to feel his muscles or make eyes at him. Paulette tried to smile her usual goofy smile, but the corners of her lips trembled.

When did he start noticing things like that?

"Where are the sisters?" Gatson asked, just to break the awkward silence.

"We're hemming curtains. I saw you through the window and came out. You've been out of town a long time."

"A hunting accident," the man waved his hand. "It's all right now."

Paulette didn't try to smile anymore. She stared at his face in silence, as if trying to memorize every feature.

"And how... how are you? Are you happy?"

Somehow that simple question caught him like a thunderclap. Either she was looking too closely at his face, or it was the first time he'd ever been asked what he really thought. Or the sadness in Paulette's usually cheerful voice confused him.

"I... Yes, of course..." He turned away and watched an ant crawl along the stone sidewalk. "I don't know... It's not easy."

"Oh, Gaston... Things will get better!" Paulette smiled. "You'll remember this conversation a year from now when you and Belle have a healthy baby boy."

"Thank you, Paulette," Gaston smiled. "You know, we've decided to go to Toulon for a few days. It's a town nearby. We'll see the sea."

"How romantic!" the girl clasped her hands to her chest. Then she got serious again. "You know... I've dreamed so much that you would look at me. That you and I would talk, just the two of us, so that there would be no sisters or other people, just you and me. That you would...talk to me...how do I say this...like a human being...And now...The dream has come true. Then why do I feel so bad? You never promised anything, you never even looked at us..." She covered her face with her hands and cried. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't say that. You don't have to listen to this..."

Gaston stared at the girl in shock. She loved him, only now it didn't make him proud, only regretful. These girls were his love trophies, but he didn't think their hearts could ache as much as his.

And they were alive and real, while he was just playing with their feelings to show off to passersby.

"Don't cry, Paulette," Gaston touched the blonde's shoulder. "You're such a good girl. And you will definitely meet your true love."

He didn't know why he said true love, it just came out of his mouth.

Paulette took her hands away from her face, tears still rolling down her cheeks, but her eyes shone and a smile touched her lips:

"I will meet true love... How well you said it, Gaston. Farewell." She hugged the man and he too hugged the girl back. "Be happy," the girl added.

Gaston went into the bookstore, found a map with the help of the owner, and all was going well until he got home. Belle was visibly angry.

"So how washing your dirty stinky socks is for me, but how hugging you is for her? All your songs about true love, that's what it is!"

"What are you talking about, Belle?" Gaston was confused and made a new blunder -walked in dirty boots to the middle of the room, even though Belle had asked him to take them off before entering.

"Good people reported it," his wife looked at him with a murderous look, so Gaston decided to tell it like it was:

"Belle, nothing happened. I just met Paulette at the market..."

"Paulette," Belle said with her hands at her hips.

"Yeah, that's her name."

"She asked me if I was happy, and... Then she cried, because she wasn't with me. She hugged me, and I hugged her back, and I just knew she loved me," he didn't finish, because Belle slapped him.

"You bastard!" Belle howled. "You horny animal! I can see why you sleep on the chair! You turned me into a slave and go to the Bimbettes!

Gaston was so surprised he wasn't even angry. He pressed his hand to his burning cheek - no one had ever hit him before.

"Belle, what's the matter with you? It was nothing, I swear!"

Belle turned and went into the kitchen, pounding the dishes:

" I'm doing my best, and he ... Cook him a meal, I stink of this meat ... How much dirt from the house - can not count ... Do not sleep, do not eat ... Treat him ... At least one affectionate word ... No, he wants real love! And they're giving him that love, but in a different place!"

Gaston, in a kind of stupor, entered the ruined kitchen and spoke, struck by a sudden realization:

"Belle, are you jealous?"

His wife turned around and, flushed, shook her fists in his face:

" Yes! Imagine - I am jealous of my handsome husband with his ex-girlfriends! That's how primitive I am!"

"Belle, nothing happened. You know I only want you."

Belle seemed to start to calm down, but then she saw the mud from his boots on the floor.

"I told you to take your shoes off!"

Her hand reached for the frying pan, and Gaston sprinted out the door. He was just in time for something heavy to hit it. Groaning, he went into the tavern.