“My mother is coming tomorrow.” Angie said as she flipped through a magazine.
“Would you like me to send a car for her?”
“No, Derek, I’ll pick her up from the airport.”
“Would you like me to go with you?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll have dinner out tomorrow night. She’ll be here for a week.”
“Okay. Do you need me to make reservations?”
“I don’t need you to do anything. This was strictly informational only.”
The silence got thicker. Derek closed the file he’d been reading from and looked over at his wife who these days seemed more like a roommate. They didn’t share anything anymore. They lived separate lives and he knew it was because of the mistake he’d made. He remembered the love they used to share and how good it used to be and he knew it was all his fault they no longer had that connection and he knew there was nothing he could do to get it back because he’d tried everything.
“Stop looking at me.”
“Can we talk?”
“No.”
He lay back against the pillows and looked at the wedding photo of the two of them on the fireplace mantle. His dark chocolate skin the perfect contrast to the white sheets on the bed. His body, perfectly chiseled and yet unused, untouched by his wife. For over a year now.
He knew he couldn’t say anything more even though he knew something had to give. They couldn’t continue on in this vein.
Her family was old money and didn’t believe in divorce no matter what. His family, the polar opposite, didn’t believe in marriage it seemed as not many were married. Angie fought her father, the judge, tooth and nail when it came to their relationship. She told her family she didn’t care what they thought of the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. She held her head high and supported him through the trials of medical school. She helped him build his practice into the success it was today. She believed in him and knew the kind of man he really was regardless of what her family and friends had thought.
His mistake would prove them all right and make her look the fool. He wished with all his heart he could take it back. But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t change the past nor did he feel he could change the future from being more of the misery the past year had been. His beautiful, sparkling wife would always see him as slime beneath her dainty Jimmy Choo clad feet and it was all. his. fault.
