Love Will Find a Way by Barri Bryan

thought she'd caught sight of him in a half dozen places she'd chanced to be. “Don't be stupid,” she told herself. She got up and began to circulate.
    The fact that they managed to avoid each other for the remainder of the evening made Emily believe that Robert's being at the cocktail party was a coincidence. As soon as she could decently do so, she found her hosts, then Lee and said her good-byes. She was out of the building and walking across the parking lot before she began to relax.
    She was opening her car door when the figure of a tall man emerged from the shadows and walked toward her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized the man was Robert. As he came nearer she frowned. “You scared me."
    "That was not my intention. But I have to talk to you.” His shadowed countenance was grim. “And since you refuse to answer any of my telephone calls, this seemed my only alternative.” He extended one hand. “Please don't run away again."
    Emily had no intentions of running away. “We can't talk here.” She couldn't imagine what he wanted to tell her, but it was becoming increasingly evident that he was not going to stop dogging her until she agreed to listen to what he had to say. “Name a time and a place and I'll be there."
    "What's wrong with here and now?” He pointed toward her automobile. “We can sit in the car."
    Maybe that was best. She got in the car, reached across and unlocked the other door.
    Robert came around the car, opened the door and sat in the front seat beside her. “I feel like a fool having to go to such lengths to have a conversation with you."
    "Is Susan inside?” Emily put her key in the ignition. Why had she asked that?
    Shadows from a streetlight played across Robert's set features. “What I have to say has nothing to do with Susan."
    Emily said, “Whatever it is, it must be important, you've been stalking me for weeks."
    "I don't think of it as stalking.” He rested his arm on the back of the seat.
    His nearness brought a rush of old feelings. “Do you deny you've been following me?"
    "It's a free country.” He turned his head and stared through the windshield. “I've been following you, looking for an opportunity to talk to you. You left me no alternative. I can't reach you at your work. When I call the house, I get an answering machine. You refuse to have anything to do with my family. You've cut me out of your life completely."
    He was making it sound as if she had left him. “You're the one who got the divorce."
    Turning, he stared at her. “For almost a half century you have been a part of my life. Just because we're divorced doesn't mean we can't be friends. I hoped that after awhile, we could let bygones be bygones and patch up our differences."
    Emily wanted nothing to do with this man, ever again. “If I'm not good enough to be your wife, why should I want to be your friend?"
    Robert's voice was resigned. “It wasn't a question of being good enough."
    "Then what was it?” she asked bitterly.
    "We drifted apart. You had other interests that filled your life. Sometimes I felt like a chore you never quite got around to doing."
    The truth of his assertion cut like a knife. “Are you saying that I neglected you and took you for granted?” She knew she had been guilty on both counts.
    The muscles in Robert's face tightened. “I am not blaming you for what happened."
    "But you said—” Emily began.
    He interrupted her before she could complete her sentence. “I know what I said. It was not meant as a criticism. I am the one who destroyed our marriage."
    She couldn't let him shoulder all the blame. “That's not true. I was at fault, too."
    He smiled the saddest, most hopeless smile she had ever seen. “How tragic it is when something that once was alive and beautiful slowly dies away."
    He was telling her, as gently as he could, that the love he had once felt for her was gone forever. He was offering her friendship, but that was all he would ever be able