"Really, I'm more hurt than angry," Lyle said.
Ashley couldn't quite suppress a tiny yelp when she heard his voice from just over her shoulder. In fact, she tried very hard not to--she was in a public place, and all she needed to do was scream and security guards would come running. Then it would just be a matter of explaining that he was a former boyfriend who wouldn't leave her alone, and they'd take him outside, at least long enough for her to get onto the bus and get out of here. But something in the back of her head choked the scream off until it was just a tiny little "eep!" noise, not quite the silence that her subconscious wanted, but certainly the sort of thing people did all the time when they were startled. The kind of thing nobody would notice.
"See, that's exactly what I'm talking about, Ashley," Lyle continued, walking around the row of uncomfortable plastic seats to sit down right next to her. "We've been dating for five years now, living together for three, and how do you greet me? With a little scream of panic and an attempt to jump out of your chair. It hurts, Ashley. It really does."
Ashley made another attempt to jump out of her chair, but it was as if all her muscles had turned to water. All she could muster up was a tiny twitch of her legs, barely noticeable to anyone but the two of them. "How did you find me?" she asked, looking down at her legs as if willing them to move. She knew that wasn't really what she was doing, and she suspected Lyle did too. She was really just looking anywhere but in his eyes.
"You called me, honey," Lyle said, his voice poisonously sweet. More than sweet, it was soothing. Calming. The same voice she'd fallen in love with, the same voice that had whispered in her ears so softly, so many times...fear gripped Ashley's heart, but at the same time she felt a glassy calm sinking over her whole body. "You told me you were at the bus station, and that I needed to come and get you."
"I...I don't remember doing that," she said quietly. "I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have wanted to do that."
"Part of you did, love," Lyle responded. She knew he was right. She'd known it even as she'd protested. It was the same part of her that was keeping her tone low and soft and quiet, and kept her from screaming or running. The same part of her that made her forget she'd made the call as soon as she hung up. The part of her that Lyle had programmed. "The part of you that loves me."
"It's not that I don't love you, Lyle," she said plaintively. "I just...I think we need a break, that's all. Just a little time apart. Lots of couples do it. It doesn't mean I'll never come back, I just..." She trailed off, knowing that she couldn't make the lie sound convincing. She couldn't get the terror out of her voice.
Lyle took her chin in his hand gently, the gesture of a consoling lover. He tilted her head up and towards him, and even though he used very little pressure, she couldn't pull free as his eyes locked with her own. "Then why couldn't you just tell me?" he asked. "If that was it, then why couldn't you be honest with me and tell me to my face that was what you wanted?"
Ashley blinked. It was a struggle. She could feel her eyes widening, her stare becoming fixed and open. "Because I was afraid," she whispered. "I was afraid you'd..."
"Hurt you?" Lyle's face was nothing but injured sweetness, the hurt of a lover who couldn't even imagine how they'd been accused so wrongly by someone so close to them. "You know I'd never do that, baby. I'd never let anything bad happen to you."
