Closing the Door

Dan & Libby

Libby felt a sweet, wonderful ache in her body, the same ache she'd felt last time she'd been with Dan. But she felt something else too. Alone, and used.

Dan was beside her bed, getting dressed. To say they'd slept together would have been lying, Libby thought to herself. They'd had sex and now he was leaving. Was that all she was to him?

Sitting up, Libby pulled her quilt over herself, up to her chin. "Is this how it's going to be, Dan?" she asked quietly. "You're just going to come to me when you feel like it, and when it's over, you'll just leave? Nothing else? No feelings. No-" Here Libby's voice broke a little, but she went on. "No anything?"

Dan found himself unable to meet her eyes. He'd come over here drunk and acting just the way Ben Wade would have acted, and it had gotten him what he wanted. Or had it? Was this all he wanted from Libby? Sex? He could go into Coff's or Sydney and get that any time.

Dan was ashamed of himself, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her that. Finally, he looked over at her.

Libby was beautiful, he told himself, not for the first time. Her chin was resting on the quilt over her knees, as she looked at him. Her soft, curly blonde hair was lit by the lamp in one corner of the room. Her brown eyes had the glint of tears in them, and he saw her wipe them away with one hand.

Looking down again, he finished buckling his belt and walked toward the bedroom door, barely able to see for the shame and anger at himself that were blurring his vision. In the doorway he stopped, but didn't turn around.

Speaking softly, he said, "I'm sorry, Libby. I didn't mean for it to be like this. You won't see me again."

Still sitting up in bed, unbelieving of what she'd just heard Dan say, Libby heard the front door of her apartment close as he went out.