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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 18, 2018 22:46:50 GMT -5
Curt shut his eyes, but he took that involuntary step toward her anyway.
"You don't have to feel pity for something that happened practically before you were born. But it makes it difficult to start anything new. Even when I might want to."
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 18, 2018 22:50:03 GMT -5
When he might want to. It was charitable and kind of him to keep sparing her feelings. It only made her more aware of how little she'd spared his. She choked.
"Oh, God, Curt, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I - dragged you out here, and came here to your room, and unloaded all of this crap on you again - I wish you weren't so nice to me," she repeated again, faintly. "It's so hard to take, you being so nice. It makes me feel so guilty."
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 18, 2018 23:41:18 GMT -5
"I came here because I wanted to be here," Curt said, a little more firmly and less self-loathingly. "Not with your father, with you. And I'm glad you're here again and not pouring your heart out to someone else."
Like Megan, for instance, who seemed one jostle away from shattering.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 18, 2018 23:43:07 GMT -5
Something inside her must have melted; she felt her eyes starting to drip, and tried in vain to prevent it.
"Curt -" she said helplessly.
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 18, 2018 23:51:46 GMT -5
"Oh no, don't, don't--"
He didn't even have a handkerchief to offer her, or even its more prosaic equivalent in the form of a Kleenex. He had to go to her then, there was no avoiding it now, but it seemed impossible without treating her like some kind of porcelain doll.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 18, 2018 23:52:30 GMT -5
She held out her arms to him haltingly, pulling her hands back to her face again after. "May I - that is- "
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 18, 2018 23:53:43 GMT -5
"Yes, of course." Some part of him was touched that she asked permission; some part of him was frightened at the thought that something had happened, something to make her afraid to touch him. Curt reached for her.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 18, 2018 23:55:30 GMT -5
She clasped her arms around him tightly, pressing her cheek against his collar.
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 18, 2018 23:58:13 GMT -5
The barrier between them being at least partway demolished, Curt clung to her.
"Are you going to go back to him?" Less stern now, cautious both of her feelings and her likely answer. If he'd been half as communicative as this ten years ago, he'd still be married.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 18, 2018 23:59:10 GMT -5
Nina hesitated, then nodded, shyly - ashamedly - against him, before hesitating again. "It's - he's - I don't know. I don't know how to say it."
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 19, 2018 0:03:31 GMT -5
"I understand." Curt cautiously brought his arm around her. "It's -- difficult."
He'd never been entangled in love, but he'd found himself entangled in other things he'd never meant to happen. Whatever existed between Nina and her terrible beau was clearly about more than love.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 19, 2018 0:20:44 GMT -5
"He knows what I really am - because he's the same. When I'm with him.... It all becomes so normal, to live like that. But then I come back here and everything is what it was before. I just feel so ashamed, and - dirty, almost- yes, exactly. Dirty of what I'm like, dirty of what we do- "
She cut off. Curt didn't need to know that much about it. She doubted he wanted to.
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 19, 2018 0:24:47 GMT -5
Hearing her speak this way made his throat constrict somehow.
"I understand. And he treats you like a woman, I imagine. Not a girl."
How had he ever thought he could keep Adrian Veidt's daughter on the line with dinner and VHS tapes and ice cream? But it had been nice.
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Post by Nina Fortner on Feb 19, 2018 0:27:24 GMT -5
"... I don't know, really. He makes as many statements about my age and his as you do, and more, perhaps. But he was so kind, when I said I loved him - " Nina's fingers gripped into his back a little harder. " - It won't last, will it. It can't possibly-"
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Post by Dr. Connors on Feb 19, 2018 0:41:11 GMT -5
"It doesn't always last. Passion doesn't, anyway. It wouldn't be your fault." Curt pulled her tighter.
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