Fisher's Light(20)

My eyes move to the space between Bobby and Ellie that they had been trying so hard to keep covered from my line of sight. My hands drop from my hips and I start walking forward blindly, shoving the two of them further apart so I can walk in between them.

This isn’t happening. This can’t be real.

I keep moving, one foot in front of the other, even though all I want to do is take Bobby and Ellie up on their suggestion and turn and run as far away as I possibly can.

On the other side of the room, Fisher is still perched on his barstool, but now he has an extra person helping him fill the seat. Straddling his lap with her arms draped loosely around his shoulders is Melanie Sanders. She’s been a thorn in my side since high school, when she shamelessly flirted with Fisher right in front of me, even after the two of us became a couple and he obviously wasn’t interested in her anymore. Over the years, she’s gone through three husbands, but it never stopped her from blatantly telling Fisher she’d always be available to him whenever he was in town. Fisher told me they only slept together once in high school, right before I moved to the island, but it was enough to keep the jealousy alive and kicking in my veins over the years.

It hurt that he’d had so much more experience before we slept together and that I had to see constant reminders of his conquests around the island, but nothing stung my pride more over the years than Melanie Sanders. She is the epitome of everything I’m not. Big (read: fake) boobs, long legs, tiny waist, perfect skin without a trace of freckles, outgoing and the life of every party. She’s made enough money through her divorces that she can travel the world whenever the mood strikes and she never has to work to make ends meet. Her hair and make-up are always perfect and she’s always dressed in the latest fashions when she struts through town. Tugging at the hem of my Butler House t-shirt that is dirty and stained from cleaning the bathrooms this morning at the inn, I try not to feel like less of a woman thinking about how my hair is a mess in a loose ponytail and I don’t even remember the last time I put on make-up.

Even though my brain and my heart are screaming at me to look away, I can’t do it. I keep walking in a daze through the bar until I’m only a few feet away from Fisher, who now has his hands wrapped around Melanie’s ass.

I watch her run her tongue over his lips. The same lips I’ve kissed for fourteen years, the same lips that have kissed every inch of my body and spoken words of love and desire. My heart feels like it’s breaking in half. I bend over at the waist and wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold it all together. I feel like any second, my insides will spill all over the floor at my feet. A strangled cry escapes my mouth as Melanie shifts her hips in Fisher’s lap and I hear him groan.

Both of their heads turn in my direction at my guttural sound and I want a hole to appear in the floor so I can fall through it and disappear forever.

Melanie smirks and Fisher stares right through me with cold, dead eyes.

“Sorry, sweetheart, it looks like you just didn’t have what it takes anymore,” Melanie sneers as she keeps her eyes on me while she leans forward and runs her tongue over Fisher’s lips again.

I feel someone’s arms wrap around me from behind. I don’t even struggle as they pull me backwards, away from the nightmare I’m living through right now.

“Come on, Lucy, let’s go home,” Ellie says softly next to my ear.

“Yeah, get out of here, I’m a little busy,” Fisher finally speaks as he wraps his arms around Melanie’s waist and turns his head to look at her instead of me.

“You’re a f*cking *, you know that?” Ellie shouts as she continues to pull me through the bar.

“Been trying to get everyone to realize that for a while now,” Fisher yells in response, still gazing at Melanie.

I try to look away from the two of them, but I can’t do it. It’s like driving by a car accident and not being able to tear your eyes away from the devastation because you just have to see, you have to know that it’s real and that it actually happened.

“What the hell are all of you looking at? Mind your own f*cking business!” I hear Bobby shout as his arms wrap around me, as well, and he helps Ellie usher me out of here.

I suddenly notice that the bar is silent. Someone turned off the music and everyone is looking between Ellie, Bobby and I over to what Fisher is doing at his table. It’s mortifying and I want to die. I feel like a bug under a microscope, like everyone is examining every detail of my life just for the fun of it. I don’t want to be the source of entertainment for this town. I’ve kept what’s been going on with Fisher a secret for years, never admitting to anyone but Ellie about how I felt like he was slipping further and further away from me. Too many people wanted our relationship to fail. Too many people tried to tell us that high school romances never work, especially when one of those people is a Marine who spends more time deployed than he does at home. I don’t want them to be right. I don’t want them to talk about me behind my back, satisfied that their predictions came true and that they were right along.