She breathed out and tried not to scream at him where he stood on the other side of the room, smiling at her over the top of the ugly brown sofa in that particularly condescending manner that she’d come to hate.
"If you'd like time to think about this…"
She shook her head. "Just leave, Chris. I'm sick of talking about it."
He pursed his lips. "You were so eager to talk about it last night. Not as fun when you're not winning, is it?"
She clenched her fists. "I think we've talked the issue to death.”
"No, we've just been going around in circles."
"You need to go now. I'll bring your stuff over once you find somewhere else to live."
He flinched, his perfect mask of indifference cracking a tiny bit and she felt a small amount of satisfaction.
With surrender written in his eyes he turned, taking slow, measured steps toward the door of the apartment. "Call me later?" It was a question and she had the suspicion that he wasn't expecting an answer.
"Maybe." She'd have to find out where to drop off his stuff, anyway.
He opened the door and ran straight into Vira. He didn't reply to her chipper greeting, and the last that Tyla saw him he had allowed his shoulders to slump and was presenting the perfect image of dejection.
She turned her attention to Vira, who had perched herself on the arm of the couch. "Hi."
The phone rang.
Tyla frowned and decided that if it was Crhiss she would officially disconnect her line. "Hello?"
"Is Veronica there?"
She blinked. "...yes." She held out the receiver to Vira. "Kira wants to talk to you."
Vira snatched the phone. "Did you--" She listened, and let out an excited woop. "God, I love you! Yeah, okay. Sweet. I'll recruit people. ... My charming personality! ... Fuck you. Bye." She hung up, grinning.
"Hey," Tyla snapped her fingers to get the dark haired girl's attention. "If you wanna move back in, you're welcome."
Vira laughed. "No, I'm good. That's actually what that phone call was about. Kira and I are gonna rent a bigger apartment together. She just put down the first payment now."
"Oh." Tyla sat down on the couch. "You guys are pretty serious, eh?"
Vira nodded. "Yeah. We're gonna try out the whole serious grown up adult relationship thing with a side of polyamory and see how it goes."
Tyla snorted. "Grown up relationships are stupid." Angrily, she pulled her wedding ring off her finger and dropped it into the ornamental ashtray on the end table. “I don’t recommend them.” Vira's eyebrows shot up.
"What the hell, Ty?"
Tyla sighed. "I did it. I broke up with him."
"Jesus. ...Just now? Is that why he walked out of here looking like someone just ran over his puppy?"
Tyla leaned her head back and stared intently at the ceiling. "Yeah, that's it."
Vira stroked her hair. "Was all of this stuff really worth losing a marriage over?"
Tyla snorted. "Yes."
Her best friend sighed. "I've known you for eighteen years, Ty, and in all that time I've seen you make all of three big mistakes."
"The jell-o shots were fun while they lasted," Tyla objected.
"Shut up. You're interrupting my heartfelt and emotional speech. And do you remember the part where we spent the entire next day barfing our guts out? Because that wasn’t fun. At all."
"I'm trying to save you from the cheesiness.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
Vira nodded. “You’ll actually listen to what I have to say in some sort of reverse psychology thing where you hope that by getting me to finish what I want to say I’ll no longer have a reason to stay around and.”
Tyla nodded, up and down like a puppet on a string wielded by a shaky old man. “It’s easier this way.”
Vira snorted. “Easy is not trying in school. Easy is working as a checkout clerk all your life. Easy is blowing your yearly earnings on plastic surgery in order to find a millionaire husband. The easy way is never the best one.”
Tyla, with a miraculous amount of restraint, did not mention Kira and Gabriel. She did slide down to sprawl on the floor, pressing her face into the carpet. “I actually hate him. The last time I checked, that wasn’t the grounds for a healthy and loving relationship.”
Vira sighed, and Tyla heard her shifting to sit down properly. “I know you probably think you hate him –believe me, I know what I’m talking about—but give it some time. You guys haven’t tried a marriage councilor yet, maybe that’ll help.”
“I doubt it.”
“Way to be a pessimist.”
Tyla ignored her. “This is the second time we’ve been on the verge of divorce. In five years. That’s got to say something.”
“And look what happened when it happened the first time.”
“If you say anything at all about Marc you can just leave right now and save me the effort of kicking you out.”
“Ok, ok. Chill. I was just pointing out a fact.”
Tyla rolled over on her back. “I’ve made up my mind, Vira. I just can’t live like this anymore, and there’s no reason that I should have to. He’s arrogant. He’s condescending. He thinks that everything I do is for myself or for people who will then owe me favours. All he ever does is whine and whine that I don’t spend enough time with him, and then when I make an effort he gets suspicious. Thinks I’m only doing it to get something from him.”
“Are you?”
She hadn’t been expecting the question. Vira stared down at her, eyes wide and serious. Tyla looked away.