Our Pointless Fights

Chapter 2: Going After Her

-Nathan-

Finally, I knew where she was. It had felt like an eternity. Well, at least that’s how it felt to me. I knew three months wasn’t an eternity, and deep down, I knew Megan wasn’t intentionally hiding. If she was, she wouldn’t have flown to Seattle. She would have left the country or something. I wouldn’t have discovered her whereabouts through an old mutual friend connected to Naomi and me. An old party acquaintance, you could say, whom I bumped into and who disclosed their location.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jax inquired, standing in the doorway of my bedroom, munching on an apple and clad in nothing but a pair of pants. Since Megan’s departure, he had witnessed my descent into depression, prompting him to move into the sizable house with me. Despite my protests, he refused to leave. He was beginning to irk me with his constant chatter when all I desired was solitude, always attempting to coax me into going out with him. I wanted none of it. All I wanted was Megan, but I couldn’t bring myself to evict him. Ever since he moved in, I noticed he had ceased seeing Kat. Something had transpired between them, but I refrained from probing, knowing he preferred not to discuss it.

“Plan?” I echoed, slipping on my jacket, casting him a puzzled glance.

“You do have a plan, right?” he pressed.

I shrugged, uncertain of my next move.

“You can’t go all caveman on her, just scoop her up and carry her off with you,” he remarked.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” I retorted.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what I intended to do. Now that I had located her, all I could think about was seeing her. I yearned to ascertain her well-being. I wanted to know if she was taking care of herself. Had she erased me from her thoughts entirely? Or did she experience sleepless nights like I did?

“So, what are you going to do?” Jax inquired.

“I’m going to see her and convince her to come back with me,” I informed him.

“Yes, because I’m sure that’s exactly what she wants after you broke her heart and all,” he remarked sarcastically.

“Do you have any good advice for me, or are you just going to stand there complaining about my plan?” I retorted.

“I just think you need to take a moment to think about this,” he advised.

“I have thought about it,” I insisted, walking past him with nothing but my cellphone, wallet, and passport in hand. “I’ve thought about it at night, during the day, ever since she left.”

“No,” he countered, following me through the house. “You’ve thought about her, but not about what you were going to do when you found her.”

“I know what I’m going to do,” I maintained as we descended the stairs. “I’m going to bring her home.”

“Listen, Nathan,” he interjected, grabbing my arm as we reached the bottom step. “This might be your last shot at this.”

“I know. Trust me... I know,” I assured him.

“Then don’t screw it up.”

“I won’t.”

“So confident,” he remarked, shaking his head. “You need to know what you’re going to say if you’re going to do this.”

I pondered his words. He wasn’t wrong. I needed to be prepared. I wasn’t even certain if Megan would be the one to answer the door when I rang the bell, or if she would even open it. I had to be ready.

“What should I say then?” I inquired, turning to face him.

Jax opened his mouth, but it was evident he had no answer. I sighed.

“Maybe I should have called Kat,” I muttered.

At least she knew Megan. Perhaps she knew what to do, but when I mentioned Kat, I noticed a change in my friend. Jax hadn’t had it easy, so later on in life, it seemed like nothing really affected him, but her name made him almost grimace.

“I’ll figure it out on the plane,” I asserted.

“Shouldn’t you pack some things at least?” Jax inquired, trailing after me to the door.

“You think this is a vacation?” I retorted, opening the door and then turning to face him again.

“Well, you don’t know exactly when you’ll see her,” he reasoned.

“I’ll see her as soon as I get to her house.”

“And if she turns you away?”

“That won’t happen,” I declared.

“No?”

“I won’t let it.”

I had to exude confidence because I couldn’t envision a scenario where Megan would refuse to let me in, where she would shut the door in my face and tell me to go to hell, though there was a real possibility it could happen.

“Once again, so confident,” Jax remarked.

“I need to be.”

“You need to show her that you’re not the jerk who walked into this marriage,” he insisted.

“I know that.”

“You seem to know a lot of things, and yet she walked out that door,” he pointed out.

Jax knew which buttons to push. I stepped closer, my demeanor a tad more menacing.

“I didn’t think she would!” I snarled. “She was with me when we fell asleep, and when I woke up, she was gone!”

“I know, I know,” Jax said, holding up his free hand. “But what you’re doing right now, I don’t think it will work.”

“What do you want me to do? I’m going crazy here!” I exclaimed. “I just want her back.”

“I know, but maybe you should give her time. If she wants to be with you, she’ll come back to you.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Nathan...” he began.

“I can’t! I can’t risk her moving on and finding someone else. Megan belongs with me and only me!” I insisted. “I won’t let some other i***t touch her and have her all to himself. I refuse it.”

“She doesn’t trust you right now. You think an apology will change anything?” Jax questioned.

“You think that’s my big plan? An apology,” I scoffed.

He shrugged. “You don’t have a plan.”

“I do. I’m going to get the woman of my dreams, and I’m going to prove to her that I’ve changed. That I’m not the man who entered this marriage with her, but she changed me and made me better. I want to be with her because I love her, and there’s no one else for me but her.”

Jax watched me for a moment, seeming almost surprised to hear these words come from me. I was surprised too, actually. I knew I loved her, but it seemed in her absence I had fallen even deeper. Was that even possible? With Megan, it seemed like anything was.

“Wow,” Jax remarked.

He looked at me for a while, then a silly grin spread across his lips, and I realized he wasn’t being serious.

“Now you’re almost making me fall in love with you,” he teased.

I groaned and rolled my eyes.

“Funny!” I said sarcastically.

“Oh, come on, man!” he exclaimed as I walked away.

He followed me outside. It was early, seven in the morning actually, but here in the middle of summer, the sun was already up, welcoming a new day.

“I was joking!” he insisted, trailing me to my car.

“This is not a joke!” I told him, stopping by the car and looking at him.

He held up his hand again. “I know. Sorry.”

“Why are you so involved in my marriage right now?” I asked. “Don’t you have a girlfriend you should focus on?”

Once more, he appeared pained, and I couldn’t discern why. Instead of explaining, he just shrugged and said, “No.”

I wanted to help him, whatever had happened between him and Kat seemed serious, but right now, I had a wife to retrieve. I could focus on my friend when I returned.

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Bring her home,” he said.

I nodded and got into my car, ready to fetch Megan and ensure she would never leave again.