“I must have done something wrong,” Hannah thought to herself as the days passed with no more word from Burton. Regret inevitably began to creep to the forefront of her mind. What had she done?? What if her husband found out?? Would she ever hear from him again?? Was she only a piece of meat to him?? She was so confused about how she felt. On the one hand she did love her husband and didn’t know what would happen if he found out what she had been doing and saying to Burton. On the other hand, she had a connection with Burton; he was attentive and seemed to genuinely care for her. He was handsome… he had sent her a pic… and his voice never failed to make her melt on the spot. She thought about him all day long… every day.
“No more chat rooms for me,” Hanna pledged. She would make her marriage work and leave behind any memories of Burton.
“Hey, Baby” he popped on one morning after an almost two week absence.
“Hi,” Hannah said coolly, determined to not let him get to her anymore.
“Did you miss me?” he asked in his usual jovial manner.
“You know I did but that doesn’t really matter does it?” Hannah was holding her ground… or so she thought.
“Look, I’m sorry about the past few days…” he began. “I had a family emergency.”
“Whatever,” Hannah replied. She was fuming. After leaving her hanging for two weeks and now he wanted to come back and pretend that she was nothing more than a casual chat buddy…
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing…” she replied the way angry women always did. “I’m fine!”
“No you’re not…” he replied. “Tell me what is bothering you.”
“It’s nothing that I can’t handle,” she said in response, not wanting him to know that he had gotten to her in the first place.
“You know that I am always here for you, baby. You’re my girl and I hate to see you upset. Even if it is something that I have done, let me have it. Don’t keep it bottled up, whatever it is we can work through it… can’t we?”
“Do you really want to know what is bothering me?”
“Of course I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked.”
“YOU!” she screamed in her mind, in her heart and on the screen. “You are bothering me.”
“Go on,” he urged her. “I’m listening.”
“How I feel about you bothers me. I’m angry with myself for letting you get to me. I’m developing real feelings for you, Burton, and that scares the hell out of me.” She was now in tears as she poured her emotions and thoughts out across the chat box. “You say things to me that I don’t know what to do with… such sweet things that you know I don’t get at home. I won’t be played, Burton, if that is all this is to you… just a game… then I suggest you delete me from you list right now because I have too much at stake for games.”
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