“I don’t know what you expected, Mimi. What do you want from me? You know what my life is like, what my goals are, and yet I feel like you are always maneuvering to try and get me stay in Wellmore.” Brady was running his fingers through his hair, the nervous habit he had picked up years ago.

Mimi stared at him as though he was the densest person on earth, which he definitely felt like at this moment in time. “What I EXPECT?” She spat the words at him and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “EXPECT? Come on, Brady. We have been in this dance since were were pre-teens and have I ever laid any expectations on you? “

He just shook his head, not saying a word.

“Have I asked you for anything, Brady? Because in my recollections of the on again, off again thing with you, I have never laid out any kind of future or sought anything from you. Whatever this thing is we have going on, it does not come with any expectations on my part, but it seems like whenever we get together “just as friends” as you put it, somehow we end up in bed together with you vacillating back and forth with what it is we have going on here.”

“I know.” Brady sat up with his back agains the headboard. “Mimi, I am just a mess.” He reached out to her, but she shrugged off his hand and stood up, grabbing her clothes and heading into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Brady just sat there, listening to the shower, and trying to make some sense of it all. He had made up his mind he was not, absolutely not, going to put himself or put Mimi in another compromising position but all his best laid plans just flew out the window the minute he was with her and she smiled at him. She was his Mimi. She had always been his Mimi and no matter the ups and downs of their relationship, she was indelibly carved into his heart and he couldn’t get her to leave. He wanted her; there was never any doubt of that. On the other hand, he was a loner and had always been a loner, and how could he ask her to take on the screwed up mess that he was?

Somehow, this had to end.