Well, that was a bust, Ruth thought miserably, as she started her journey back to the car.

Though she thought shooting hoops would help clear her mind, she quickly realized it did no such thing. Each basket toss was missed, and by the time she actually made a couple hoops, the courts were increasingly getting popular, as the afternoon settled and kids from all ages came out to enjoy some ball. Defeated, Ruth decided to pack up her ball and make her way back to Jana's.

It wasn't like she was going to be any good, anyway. Not with her mind as jumbled as it was.

Somewhere on the journey back to her car, with her hoodie drawn over her head and sunglasses pushed against her face as a poor disguise to avoid the man who lived nearby, she ran into a solid body just as her foot hit the asphalt of the parking lot. Her ball fell free from her grip and bounced once on the cement before being caught by the stranger who ran into her.

"Shit, sorry about that," the stranger cursed, and Ruth quickly snapped her head up at the familiarity of the voice.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Did fate have a damn agenda that consisted of ruining all the days Ruth had left in Oklahoma? Did her grandfather, whom she hadn't seen yet, want to have a laugh or two up there for putting off visiting the gravesite? Or was the Creator mad she was avoiding her parents' messages like the plague?

Either way, life just didn't seem fair, as she continuously saw this man at the most inopportune times.

Raffo's eyes widened, his arm frozen mid-action as he held out her basketball to her. His throat bobbed with a swallow and Ruth tried not to follow the movement of his bobbing Adam's apple. With his medium length hair pushed back, and his jaw sharp and tight, something in her chest moved like a boa and constricted itself around her wounded heart.

She swallowed thickly and took a step back. "Why the hell are you always around?"

Clouds rolled over his familiar, dark eyes as they narrow with disdain. "I should be asking you that. You don't even live here anymore," Raffo scoffed.

Ruth's nostrils flared, and she snatched her sunglasses off her face. Jutting out her chin, she pushed her curls out of her eyes so he could see how truly angry she was with him. She didn't know if he even cared, but it sure as hell made her feel better.

"Well, my family's here so I have a right to be in this town just as much as you," she bit out harshly. She reached out her hands and snatched her ball back away from him.

"Whatever," Raffo said, rolling his eyes and going to step around her.

Ruth, oddly feeling up to confronting him, blurted out an angry, "Why are you mad? If anyone has the right to be mad in this situation, it's me."

He turned back around at that, irritation flickering in his gaze. "How privileged of you to dictate what I'm feeling."

Heat ignited in the pit of her stomach like a stick of dynamite. She took a step towards him and let her tongue do the talking before her brain and heart could catch up. "You used me. You used me and you didn't look back or cared—"

"That's what you think?" he barked a bitter laugh, shaking his head. "You think I fucking used you? That I really didn't care about you?"

"Of course you didn't care!" she hissed, emotion swelling like a balloon in her throat. "I waited for you and you left me at the airport looking like a damn idiot! Do you know what that's like? To be left waiting for someone while their family's watching everything? Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

Raffo paused, his eyebrows furrowing. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his anger falling behind an emotionless mask. "I'm sorry I left."

Ruth wanted to push him. With her hands, with her words, anything to bring the passion back into him. She didn't want him to take the easy way out and apologize. An apology wouldn't repair that broken girl who struggled to trust another being for three years, and it certainly didn't satisfy her the way it should have. There were no answers to give and yet she wanted them.

"No, you aren't," she said. "You left because you're a coward! You didn't even try for us and I want to know why."

He shook his head and went to open his mouth, but then thought better of it, and closed it. He shifted on his feet as something flashed behind his eyes. Something that she knew she wouldn't like, but she needed to hear.

"Go on, say it," she choked.

The flash of truth left his eyes.

She opened her mouth, ready to tell him off again, when he cut her off with questions that nearly staggered her. His anger simmered, his irritation gone, and all that was left in its place was the shell of a man who refused to give into her questions and assumptions.

"Aren't you happy?" He asked bluntly, cutting off her words as he watched her with vacant eyes. "Didn't you get into NYU? Did you not move to a big city and live that big life you always wanted?"

Ruth swallowed, not liking the tone of his voice. Was he mocking her? "Yes," she eventually growled, lifting her chin again. No thanks to you.

He moved away, getting ready to turn his back on her as he moved to the side. "Then that's all that matters. You got what you wanted," he muttered coldly.

Something inside Ruth snapped at that.

"WELL I WANTED YOU TOO," Ruth exploded, her voice quaking. "AND YOU RUINED EVERYTHING."

That one got him, as he snapped his head to the side, his jaw tightening dangerously. His glaring gaze flashed at Ruth and for an unknown reason, her own eyes watered. She hated crying, and hell she hadn't cried about him in months. But now here she was; stuck in a position that she never thought she'd ever be in with tears attempting to swell in her eyes.

"I RUINED EVERYTHING? I RUINED IT?" Raffo blazed. "I gave you what you wanted. You needed to leave, and I made it easier. I did that. FOR. YOU."

"YOU THOUGHT WHAT YOU DID WAS EASIER FOR ME?" Tears flood Ruth's agonized eyes as she shook her head. "I was devastated—devastated for three years, Raffo! Three fucking years because you couldn't be an actual fucking adult and—"

"You don't even know what you're talking about!" Raffo shouted, shoving his fingers into his cropped shoulder-blade length hair. "I DID IT ALL FOR YOU."

"You did it for yourself," Ruth sobbed, her frustration tipping well enough over. She didn't care that she was a crying mess in front of him anymore. She wanted him to see what he did to her; how he broke her. How he turned her into a person neither of them recognized, and she wasn't ashamed of it.

A phoenix rose out of the ashes of his destruction. And she had no intention of starting back over.

"You're never going to believe me. No matter what I fucking say you aren't going to believe a word of it," he laughed humorlessly. He threw his arms up in defeat and she didn't notice before, but the tip of his nose was red and a quiet, almost inaudible sniff could be heard. "I don't know what more you want me to say, Ruth. That I'm sorry I left? You already heard that. That I did what I thought was best for you? I already fucking said that too. What more do you want from me?"

The question stumped her; her tears coming to a halt.

It shouldn't have stumped her. She should have used the conversation as a way to bring her some type of closure, but that wasn't how closure worked. And she knew that. So, what did she want? Because nothing he was saying was satisfying her rage; her urge to piss him off and make him be honest with her.

But why did it matter? She was moved on. She had a girlfriend, a job, and a home in New York to go back to. So what did she want from Raffo?

"What do you want from me?" he repeated softly, his anger blowing out of him like steam from a kettle. He even took a step forward, his close proximity giving a trail of residual shivers down her spine as they stood chest to chest with her long lashes touching the lid of her eyes as she studied him. His eyes slid down her body briefly before settling on her lips, waiting for whatever came out of her mouth next.

For once, she couldn't find anything to say.

"Raffo?" A soft voice spoke up behind his shoulder, breaking them out of their state down as Ruth watched a slender hand slide over his brown skin. It was a familiar voice that made Ruth stand straighter and look around his body as she was met with a hazel gaze.

The hazel gaze that belonged to a slightly older and much more beautiful Mirana.

With her features glowing, her brown hair long and healthy around the middle of her back, and light make-up powdering her face, the woman is a definite angel. Her eyeliner rimmed eyes widened at the sight of Ruth, her glossy lips parted in confusion and shock. "Ruth?"

But that wasn't what truly caught her attention. It wasn't the diamond ring of engagement on her finger as she rested her hand on Raffo's arm, nor was it the added length to her wavy hair that caressed his skin in the wind. It wasn't even the look of confusion as she looked between Raffo and Ruth.

No, it was her hand on her stomach.

Her very pregnant and protruding stomach.

Ruth, much to her slow horror, looked away from Mirana to look up at Raffo with wide eyes, her tongue stuck in her throat. Pain she didn't even know she could feel anymore spread across the length of her clenching stomach as her heart slowed and then stopped altogether. She didn't have to look in a mirror to know she was looking at Raffo the way one would look at a traitor.

And by the way Raffo looked down at her, registering the emotions that flew across her face, she knew her assumption had to be right. He opened his mouth, possibly getting ready to feed her another lie, but she didn't have the energy to listen to another word from him.

Before he could reel her back in, she spun on her heel and fled to her car. Vulnerability was a bitch, and she couldn't seem to catch her breath or stop the tears from coming.

"Ruth, wait!" Raffo shouted, but Ruth watched in the side mirror of her car that his baby's mother prevented him from chasing after her.

Good. She had nothing more to say to him, and she'd be perfectly happy never seeing him again.

*****