“You’re kidding right? Bette could not believe her ears. Paxton looked down into his hands and started on his monologue with a steadily rising and firm voice, confident. Bette realized he was so sure that she was going to go back to him, or he was going to go back to her. “Bette I know I fucked up, we both did but me more. If I was the one who cheated you would throw me out no question, so hopefully you can understand why I kinda…treated you like shit. But now, after losing so much, I realize that you are the one thing-person…woman that I cannot lose. You know why? Because after not being with you for so long, I realize how you make me fulfilled and I hope to do the same for you. Bette baby…..we can start over, we can start a new life, maybe even have a baby…raise our child well…be happy”. Bette could only stare at him. If he had come to her earlier, like many before she went back to Tina…maybe. Bette could not just disregard those years they shared. But she could also not disregard Tina; Bette had made a commitment to her…after so much shit it would be stupid to go back. And did Bette really want to? No. “Pax dear (Bette took his hands) I really appreciate that you still feel this way, but we’re adults and we made the decision to divorce, it becomes official in one week…and I’m with someone else Pax, I mad ea commitment to them, we live together…I only want happiness for you ok? If you need money I can give some, I can help you find a place too…but we are never, ever going to be together”. Paxton stared at her, this time Bette felt the hairs behind her neck rise.  Maybe it was the expectation he seemed to exude that made her feel scared. It was like he was counting on her to say those words, to reject them. Perhaps to justify an action he would make, but what? Bette had always been a good reader of body language but this…this was fucked, she couldn’t really….read her ex-husband. He unclenched his hands, and breathed softly…wiping the crumbs from the back of his hands, settling down at his chair. His face had gone completely white, so pale…Bette was still, she wanted to say something but nothing came out. She had lived so many years with this man, but right now it was like she knew nothing about him. His shoulders had begun to tense, and his hand went in his pocket. For a full minute nothing happened, but everything happened in Bette’s mind. She was thinking about all those thousands of cases where men couldn’t handle rejection by their former spouses, and how those men went crazy and killed their partners, ex-partners. Crimes o passion they called it. How could something that sounded so beautiful be so ugly? Bette looked to her right at the exit; Paxton caught that look and laughed. It was a queer, strange, dubious, grating laugh…like Pax was too tense or something. “Bette…I understand ok? I understand…..you don’t want to be with me well I want to be with you and I can’t stand it how you lord over me all the time pleas please pleas STOP FUCKING ARIOUND AND LOOK AT ME EYE TO EYE!!” By this time Paxton was on his feet and Bette had stood…”SIT DOWN!” Bette sat down, gripping her chair…looking for a way out. The coffee shop had gone quiet. For a second nobody did or said anything. Time was still. Then a burly man with a red shirt stepped forward and put his arm on Paxton’s arm…”Hey leave your woman alone”. In a split second Paxton pulled a Beretta from his coat pocket, spun around and pulled the rigger. The bullet only had a quarter meter to go, it hit the man in the face full on. Bette felt blood spray everywhere, Paxton was hit with the most…Bette’s own face was sprayed with blood, bits of skull and she saw a piece of brain on the table. The screams started. People ran out of the shop screaming and pulling out their cell phones, Pax looked shocked like he couldn’t believe he just did that. Bette took advantage and ran behind the counter, she saw the cook run too, and in the back…it was the only way. Bette heard the killed man’s wife start screaming, she was choking on tears and screaming at Paxton…tugging at her husband’s shirt. Bette heard another shot then silence. She head Paxton yell Bette’s name, he was a monster…he had morphed into something else. This was not Paxton. The cook was spinning around like a chicken trying to find an exit, the door was barricaded shut with boards, and a sign on it had said that way wasn’t safe. He pounded on it, broke through a window but it was too small. Bette heard Pax coming and he entered the back room. Bette was running on adrenaline. She had gone into shock, her face was pale and her heart was like a rabbit…she couldn’t feel anything…could hardly hear anything. She started crying, seeing Pax walk slowly in. “Pax please…please”  “SHUT UP”. The cook was stupid, he took up a board and threw it at PAx, it hit his arm but not his gun arm…he shot the cook. Only in the stomach so the death was slow. Bette was on her knees holding him, trying to calm him. She took off her jacket and tried to staunch the blood flow. Sirens were everywhere, the alarm had gone off. You could hear screams and chatter. Inside was death though, quiet as death took another. The cook shuddered, gripped Bette’s arm and took his last breathe….dead. Bette was crying, shaking she looked up…angry. Paxton was on his knees…”O god Bette im sorry im sorry, im so fucking sorry” While he was on his knees looking, down…the gun down.  Bette made her move.

TBC