You Don't Have to be All that Super to Be a Hero...
Ch 8
“I told her I thought I might be in love with you...”
Michael feels like he’s been gut-punched, but he’s not yet sure whether it’s in a good way or a bad way. He’s too shocked at first to say anything. “You what...!?” he finally chokes out.
James looks shattered. “I knew you’d hate me for this, just as much as she does.” Tears well up in his eyes. “This!” he yells at Michael, “This is why I didn’t want to tell you, you stupid bastard! I’ve already lost her and Brendan—I didn’t want to lose you, too. Now I’ve lost everything!” he sobs, sinking to his knees.
“James, no! I don’t hate you,” Michael tells him, pulling James into his arms. “I could never hate you. You won’t lose me, I swear.” Michael wants to tell James that he’s definitely in love with him. But love means wanting the person you love to be happy, even if that happiness is with someone else. And he knows that James loves Anne-Marie and that he wants to be with his wife and son, how it’s killing the other man to be apart from them. Michael wishes they could stay like this, in each other’s arms, forever. Instead, he just holds James and waits him to start snoring, eases him to the floor and places a pillow under his head (there’s no way he’s hauling James’s fat arse to the bedroom again) and covers him with a blanket.
Then he creeps to the bedroom, shuts the door and makes a phone call.
“Anne-Marie...? It’s Michael...no, don’t hang up. We need to talk. Please.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Especially with you,” She grits out.
James had been right—she was pissed off big-time, but Michael could hear the pain in her voice, too–knew she was hurting as much as James.
Sighing to himself in resignation at what he’s giving up, he tells her, “James finally broke down and told me everything. I didn’t know, Anne-Marie, I swear.”
“Suuuuure, you didn’t,” she snorts derisively. “Everyone sees the way you look at each other. Ironically, the only person who doesn’t seem to notice the way you look at him is him!”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Anne-Marie: I’m enough of a bastard that if I thought he really didn’t really love you anymore, I’d be with him now. But that’s not the case. Being apart from you and Brendan is killing him.”
“Oh, so that’s why he told me that he’s in love with someone else...” she hisses at him.
“He loves YOU! He’s just...confused about things right now.”
“He didn’t seem "confused about things" when he walked out on his family!”
“He says that he didn’t leave, that he didn’t want to leave, that you threw him out.”
Silence.
“Anne...?”
“I love him so much, stood by him through thick and thin, then after 10 years together, he’d just told me that he was in love with someone else...a man! What was I supposed to do, Michael? Would you have handled it any better?”
“I don’t know,” Michael admits. “Probably not. All I do know is that he does love you, so much. He told me himself that he never wanted to split up with you. He needs you. He looks like hell, Anne. He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, he drinks too much. He’s wasting away. He misses you and he misses Brendan, and I can hear in your voice how much you miss him. Just give him a chance to fix things.”
“How is he going to fix this, Michael?” She asks. “He broke my heart in the worst way. I’m not sure I can forgive him for this.”
“Even if you can’t forgive him for being human, can’t you at least let him see his son? Sorry if this seems harsh, but it’s not fair to keep them apart just because you’re hurt. It may seem like a good idea to you now, but Brendan won’t thank you for it later.” Michael hears and Anne-Marie suck in a deep breath to fire back, so he just keeps talking, not giving her a chance to interrupt. “And if it makes you feel any better, James never cheated on you, at least physically,” he tells her (wisely keeping the drunken dry-humping incident to himself). “He told you the truth because he loves you and wanted everything to be out in the open. He knew you’d be hurt, but he didn’t want there to be any secrets between you. He was afraid, but he had faith that you loved each other enough to work it out.”
There’s silence on the other line long enough that Michael is ready hang the phone up, when Anne-Marie says, quietly, “You really love him, don’t you?”
Michael sighs deeply, and admits, “Yes, I do. But I know that James truly does love you and loves his son, and that is enough for me to keep my hands to myself where he is concerned, regardless of what my heart wants.”
Anne-Marie sighs deeply herself, then asks softly, “How is he doing now?”
“Right now, he’s sleeping. A long string of sleepless nights, a 1/5 of whisky, and confession conspired to finally get the better of him and he’s passed out on the floor.”
“You left him on the floor?!”
“Don’t worry. I covered him up and put a pillow under his head, but I’m not picking his fat arse up. He weighs a ton. If you’re so worried, come here and tend to him yourself.”
“Maybe I will.” she say, tartly. Then she says, seriously, “I won’t bring Brendan, though. Not out of malice, you know, but in case things don’t go well...I don’t want him to see or hear us fighting.”
“That’s probably wise,” Michael agrees. “Oh, and I won’t tell James you’re coming. I think you should surprise him. And when you see him, or when he sees you, rather...I think that you’ll quickly see that I’m telling you the truth...that he really does love you.”
“We’ll see,” she says. Though Michael is gratified to hear that she sounds cautiously hopeful.
“Well, goodbye, Anne...hope to see you soon.”
“‘Bye. And, Michael...?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“Sure. And thank you.”
“For what?” she asks curiously.
“For believing me. For giving James another shot. For being you,” Michael says, smiling.
“Oh! Well...right back at you, love,” she says, sounding oddly pleased as she ends the call.
Michael is feeling pretty pleased himself. Turns out this super-hero business isn't all that hard...so far, anyway.