Another Man's Baby by Dyanne Davis Page B

everything.”
    “But in this case I think there is. I don’t understand what’s happening to us. You’ve been home for a little over three months and we’re living like strangers.” Gabi put her hand up to silence her husband’s rebuttal. “I’m not trying to start a fight with you.” She closed her eyes slowly, trying to continue breathing, trying not to cry. “If you found someone while you were gone…”
    She stopped a lump pushing its way from her chest to her throat. She pressed past it and ignored the welling tears. She would get through this. She loved Eric, but she would get through this.
    “If you have someone else, just tell me. Let’s make a clean break.”
    Eric blinked. Make a clean break ? What the hell was Gabi talking about? “I don’t have anyone else.”
    “I don’t know if I believe you.”
    “Have I ever given you a reason to think I was cheating on you?”
    “Yes,” she answered, almost whispering, her voice getting lost in the vastness of the room. “You use a condom to make love to me when you do, but most time you won’t enter me and you ask if you’ve ever given me a reason to doubt you. Try right now.” She lifted her eyes to his.  “The smell you’re reeking of…it’s perfume and it’s not mine.”
    Gabi stood firm, determined not to cry. If it was true, if they were over, she wanted him gone right now, like ripping away a bandage. She wouldn’t let him see her cry. She watched as he sniffled his body. Then a smile broke out on his face.
    “You think this is funny, you come home smelling like…” Her hand shot out.
    “Baby, I’d never cheat on you,” Eric whispered, holding the hand she’d intended to slap him with. “Don’t you know how much I love you?”
    “I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.”
    “The one thing you never have to doubt is my love for you.”
    “Then where did you pick up this smell?”
    “I was offered.” Eric held Gabi to keep her from backing away.
    “And?”
    “And I was tempted.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. I needed to be with someone who didn’t give a damn about me, someone I couldn’t hurt.” He stared into Gabi’s eyes, holding her angry, hurt-filled gaze, not breathing for the space of a heartbeat. “Gabi, baby, I’m sorry. I’m all screwed up and I can’t seem to shake it.”
    “You thought making love to another woman would help you shake it?”
    He hunched his shoulder. “I was told it would.”
    “What did you do?” Gabi’s voice was laced with steel as she glared up at Eric. Her eyes narrowed as she readied her knee. “Tell me now, Eric, what did you do?”
    “I thanked her for the offer and bought her a couple of drinks.”
    “Let me go.” Gabi shoved against her husband’s chest. She was so angry she was shaking. For two months she’d put up with his nonsense, trying to be sensitive, trying not to upset him, to give him time to adjust. What she should have given him was a good swift kick in the behind. She didn’t play that, she didn’t care what the reason was. She’d not stepped out on him while he was gone and she expected the same loyalty from him.
    “Nothing happened.”
    “That’s a lie, something happened.”
    “Nothing.”
    “Think again, you wanted to. Why would you even want to? I don’t understand that. It’s not as if I’m not here for you.” She couldn’t help it, the tears fell. “It’s not as though I haven’t been practically begging you. Is that it, you no longer respect me? I don’t blame you because it’s getting hard for me to respect myself.”
    “Gabi, it had nothing to do with us. It was just…she just…” He saw the fire in her eyes and changed his mind. Honesty was cool but at the moment she wasn’t in the mood for total honesty. He’d best keep what she’d done to himself, for the moment. “I didn’t do anything with her, not even dance. I never touched her.”
    “She was close enough to you to leave her scent.” Gabi glanced downward