“In the kitchen!”
He still loved her. He knew he was not the best husband for her, no matter how hard he tried. This was the first time he’d been cheated on, though, and it stung more than he wanted to admit.
She was plating their dinners, standing by the counter in her jeans and T-shirt, her dark hair in a loose ponytail. She was stunning, even when she was tired after a workday and ready to give him the bad news.
“Hey,” he said dumbly, taking off his suit jacket and unfastening another button on his shirt. He didn’t wear ties, and his sleeves looked wrinkled because he rolled them up and down all day, depending on whether he needed to wear his jacket or not.
“Hi.” She flashed him a tiny smile over her shoulder. “Can you open the wine?”
“Sure.” He went to get a bottle of her favorite from the wine fridge. He didn’t drink much, out of solidarity for his best friend Josiah, but tonight he might pour himself one too.
Once they were sat at the table, kitty-corner from each other, the itchy feeling under Denny’s skin started to get too strong.
“I’m going to move out this weekend,” Kristin said evenly, but her hand, as she reached for her glass, trembled.
Denny cleared his throat. “Okay,” he rasped. “It’s….”
“I’m sorry,” she said, before cutting into her steak.
“No, I….” He didn’t know what the end of the sentence was, so he started again. “I know I haven’t been—”
“No, you stop right there.” She glared at him fiercely. “Donotblame yourself.”
“But—”
“No, Denny. You didn’t cheat, I did,” she snapped.
“But you wouldn’t have if—”
“I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t realized that I didn’t want to be married, Denny. I thought I did, but then I realized it just wasn’t for me.”
“After three years?” He couldn’t keep the sarcasm from his voice.
She chuckled wryly. “Never said I was smart, did I?”
“Hey, none of that, you’re an intelligent, successful woman.” They’d had that conversation several times. Being a beautiful woman in her male-dominated industry had never been easy, especially because her family hadn’t always supported her ambitions while growing up.
She smiled now, looking sad. “I just… I feel like I wanted happiness and latched onto you because you’re such a good guy, Denny.”
“Don’t we all want that? Happiness?”
“Yes, but I shouldn’t have used you as a means to get it. It’s not fair. And now I’m ruining a marriage and….” She took a sip of her wine and blinked back tears.
It crossed his mind that she’d said she’d move during the weekend. Because there wasn’t a cruel bone in her body, he realized that she didn’t know the significance of the coming weekend. He had never told her, even after years together, when his brother had died. She knew he had lost Dave young, knew it had been a tragedy, but she didn’t know when the anniversary was.
“Hey, where did you go?” Kristin asked, reaching to place her hand on his.
“Oh, it’s just… circumstances,” he said weakly, shaking his head. He smiled. “I wish this had been it for us,” he confessed.
She huffed with wry amusement. “Yeah, it would have been nice, wouldn’t it?” Then she withdrew her hand and continued to eat.
They didn’t speak more about the separation or the eventual divorce. There was no need. They knew each other well enough to know how it would go. How much it would hurt and how right it would end up feeling. And that was the kicker, wasn’t it? That they’d made a mistake and were now paying for it.
Denny woke on Friday morning to a couple of texts. Out of habit, he glanced at the other side of the bed and found it empty. There were decorative pillows where Kristin’s fancy Tempur one had been only last week. She’d started to sleep in the guest room. He remembered thinking that for once, it wasn’t him fleeing the marital bed like that. Not that he’d ever cheated on his wives.
The first text had come in on an ungodly hour of the morning.
You know you can call me if you need to, any hour at all. If I’m on stage, call Jo. He’ll answer. I wish I was there to get drunk with you this weekend. Love you.
