Daphne & Casey
“You said dinner,” Daphne says, poking at the chips on her plate. “I figured it’d be somewhere cuter.” She glances around, taking in the peeling walls, the faded string lights hanging overhead. “But hey… this almost feels normal.” She dips a chip, pops it in her mouth. “Like a real date.”
Casey shifts in the chair across from her. The seat creaks. “Well… this sorta is a real date, Daph. Because we need to have a conversation.”
Her smile falters, just slightly. “That’s never good.”
“You know how I told you Lili went to therapy?”
She leans back, arms folding. “Let me guess. He already gave up on her.”
“Very funny. No. But I went with her.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. And suddenly I’m seeing things more clearly. There’s too much at stake. I can’t keep chasing the darkest parts of myself and pretending it’s freedom.”
“Is that so.”
“Lili’s not just my wife, Daph. She’s the person I built a whole life with, the one who knew me before I even knew who I was.” He clears his throat, struggling for calm. “I made her a vow. Somewhere along the way, I forgot what that meant.”
Daphne sets down her Corona. Reaches for the coffee instead. Takes a long sip.
“Being with you…” Casey says it softer this time, like the truth’s finally catching up to him. “It showed me how far I’d drifted. And you deserve better than that.”
She sets the mug down. For a split second, she thinks he might say it: I don’t care. Fuck it all. I still want you.
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But he doesn’t. He keeps talking. More bullshit. And the more he stumbles over his words, the more she feels like a problem he’s trying to manage.
“You’re telling me this because you had some grand moral awakening?” She’s trying not to yell, but she hates how calm she sounds. “Because you suddenly remembered your vows?”
“Yeah,” Casey says, a quiet relief in his voice. “Basically.”
She stares at him, incredulous. Rips open a sugar packet. Dumps it in the coffee mug. “Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because you’re scared. Scared of getting caught. Scared of losing everything you built on her back. And now you want a gold star for crawling home before it all burns down.”
“I made her a vow. But I forgot what that meant. Or maybe… I just didn’t want to remember.”
“So that’s it?” she snaps. “You pull me into the catastrophe of your marriage, and now you get to walk away clean? You didn’t just stumble into this, Casey. Don’t sit there pretending you’re fighting to be a better man. You’re not. You’re just desperate to outrun the man you really are.”
He glances over his shoulder, checking who might’ve heard. “Keep your voice down—”
“You don’t get to make me the villain in your redemption arc, scumbag.”
“Daphne—”
“I bled months of my life for you. And for what? For you to crawl back to your little white-picket prison the second this stopped being fun?”
She laughs again, louder, harsher this time. “Meanwhile, I thought we were having fun.”
“I never promised anything more than what this was.”
She pushes up from the chair. “Fine. Walk away. But know this. I’m not some secret you get to bury. If you try to erase me, I’ll make sure Lili knows who you really are. One word from me, Casey, and it all unravels. Not just your marriage. The whole myth you built around yourself, and when it falls, it’ll bury you too.”
He almost stands. Thinks better of it. Let her be mad. Let her go.
“You tell Lili, you’ll only be hurting yourself,” he says, voice scraped clean of emotion. “Think about what you’re willing to lose. You don’t have the balls, Daphne.”
He reaches for her. She jerks back. Then, without flinching, she picks up the coffee mug—and dumps it straight into his lap.
His chair screeches back. Heads turn. “What the fuck?!” he barks, louder than he means to. He looks down. His jeans and shirt are drenched.
“Relax,” she says coolly. “Coffee here’s shit anyway. Lukewarm. Just like you.”
She starts to turn, then catches herself, like the moment deserves a cleaner cut. “And don’t kid yourself, Casey. We’re not over. You might be done. But I’m not.”