Without saying a word, but looking hurt and angry, Lydia gave Maria a hateful look and stormed out of the apartment, crying.
Derick led Maria over to the kitchen table and sat her down. He lowered himself gingerly onto the wooden chair across from her. Derick tried to tell her slowly, break it to her gently, but he just blurted, "Lydia wasn't lying. I'm married."
Maria's eyes widened, then softened in a hurt look. He couldn't stand to look at her. He turned away. "Excuse me?" She replied, slowly.
"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. She left me a few years ago, but we never got divorced." Derick hung his head.
"Why did she leave you? Was she in love with someone else?" The thought that Derick cheated crossed Maria's mind, but she forced the thought out. It couldn't be his fault. Please don't let it be his fault. She hoped silently.
"No, I was."
Maria's fears were confirmed. "You were cheating on her?!" Maria was appalled and saddened at the same time. She firmly believed the phrase, 'once a cheater, always a cheater.' "Not exactly." Derick took a seat across the table from her and took her hand in his. "I was in love with another woman, but I never cheated on my wife. I loved from afar."
"Where is this woman now?"
"Still in town."
Derick knew Maria was waiting for more information. She seemed to plead with him with her eyes.
"Okay, alright. I met her at the factory. She was a new hire, and she was the most beautiful woman I had seen up until that point."
"Even more beautiful than your wife?"
Derick hung his head again. "Yes." He felt as though he was confessing a crime to the police. He then cursed Lydia for forcing him to tell Maria the truth.
"Go on." Maria prompted.
"Well," Derick took a deep breath. "She was also, easily, the most beautiful woman in the factory, out of the other two that worked there at the time. So, to make the days go by just a little bit faster, I pursued her. I swear I didn't mean for it to go as far as it did."
"Wait, wait. I thought you love from afar?"
"I did later. But in those first few days when she started work, I was relentless. I took her to lunch. I tried to talk to her every minute of the day. I made excuses to go over to her workstation."