Running The Quarter Mile - 1. Prompt 263

“And you thought that not telling me would be better than the truth?” Emmilia snapped, stomping her Italian leather stiletto boot on the floor of the barn.

“What good would it have done?” I said in a low voice. Acid leaked into the words, and I forced myself to keep my eyes focused on the hoof in my hand. “If I had told you that I needed to wrap Wynonna’s hoof, you would have bitched just as much as you are now. I might as well kill two birds with one stone.” I carefully ran my fingers along the missing chunk of my girl’s frog, and she practically yanked her hoof out of my hand. “Easy, there, baby girl.” I soothed, keeping a firm grip on her hoof.

“I do not bitch.” She wined, crossing her arms over her flat chest.

“Then what is it you’re doing now?”

“Complaining. Completely different.” She lowered her arms and paced in front of my mare’s head. “Do you know that it’s been two and a half weeks since we had a real date?”

“So?” I shrugged, carefully smearing the antibiotic paste onto the cut before putting a trauma pad onto the hoof, using vet wrap to hold it in place. “I HAD been planning a special date for us. It isn’t my fault that Baby Girl hurt her foot.” I grabbed the duct tape patch hanging from the wall next to me, placing the cross piece against the vet wrap and strapped it around the hoof. “I need to take care of her before we can go out.”

“That’s just what I’m complaining about!” She snapped. “Everything is always ‘Wynonna this’ and ‘Baby Girl that’. I am tired of being second best, Adriana Josiphine.”

I gritted my teeth as I lowered Wynonna’s foot to the floor before standing to my full 5’9” height, glaring at my girlfriend. “First off, EMMI,” I gave a small smile as I watched her wince at her hated nick name. “Never call me Adriana Josiphine. You know that is reserved for horse shows.”

“I will call you whatever I want.”

I growled low in my chest, stepping forward to stand toe to toe with her. “Secondly, you knew going into this relationship that I rode horses.”

“Which I assumed meant the occasional trail ride.” She yelled, throwing her arms into the air.

“And I explained, UP FRONT, that it wasn’t that way. My Baby Girl ALWAYS comes first.”

“And I’m fucking tired of it.” She screeched, her voice going up three octaves.

I sighed and took a step back, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “Ok, Emmilia. I have a question for you.”

“What?” she snapped crossing her arms over her chest again and cocking her hip, clearly showing attitude.

“What is the one thing you do purely for you, the one thing you do to escape the world?”

“Dance, of course.” She spat.

“Why?”

Emmilia’s face softened as she thought. “Because it allows me drown out the world around me. When I dance, I only hear the beat of the music, and my heartbeat.”

I gave a small smile. “Now you understand why I ride.”

Emmilia’s hardened once again. “No, I don’t. You wrestle with filthy, smelly, stupid animals from dawn until dusk, getting covered in mud and dirt, all for tiny scraps of ribbons.” She leveled a hate filled gaze at me. “Your ‘love’ costs you money, while mine is a career.”

“What is it you want from me, Emmilia? I’ve already cut back the hours that I spend training my horses.”

“I want you to sell this beast.” she demanded, pointing a manicured finger at Wynonna. “Sell her, preferably to a butcher, and quit this foolishness. Find a fucking real job, and quit this foolishness.”

I clenched my fist, and had to use all my control to keep from decking Emmilia. “Get out.” I demanded through clenched teeth.

“What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me. I said Get out. Get out of my barn, off my property, and out of my life.”

“You can’t….” she began, but I cut her off.

“Yes, I can. It’s one thing to say that you dislike horses, I understand that. But to demand that I sell my Wynonna, who I bred myself and raised from a filly, goes too far. We’re done.”

“But…”

“No Buts. Horses are my life, just like dancing is for you.” I held out my hand, palm up. “I’ll take back my house key, too.”

Emmilia stared at me in disbelief, not moving. “NOW.” I snapped, curling my fingers in the ‘come on’ motion. Wynonna, as if sensing my impatience with my ex, spun on her heels and lifted her back hoof, turning her head so she could aim. Emmilia skipped back a couple of steps before taking her keys from her purse. She unclipped the key to my house from the rest of the ring and threw it on the floor at my feet.

“I hope someone mistakes that beast for a deer.” She spat before storming out of the barn.

Wynonna snorted and spun once more, returning to the spot that I had put her in. I walked up to her, rubbing my palm against her forehead. “You shouldn’t of done that, but I’m glad you did.” A single tear rolled down my cheek before I could control it. Once the first tear fell, the rest fell easily, and I buried my head against Wynonna’s neck. All she did was give a low nicker and wrap her neck around me, giving the love she knew I needed.