(Continued from last issue)

David and Diane have been married for years; then there is Julie, the young secretary whose axis collides with the couple’s in ways none of them saw coming.

DAVID

After putting the children to bed, I returned to the living room where Diane was watching TV.

“Can we talk?” I asked quietly. In response, she muted the TV. “Go ahead, talk; I’m listening,” she answered coldly.

Her cold response told me I had an uphill battle on my hands, one for which I would need some extra strength; so, before sitting down, I moved to the drinks cabinet and poured myself a large glass of whisky.

“Can I get you one?” I offered, hoping the alcohol would help mellow her a bit.

“A glass of wine, thanks,” she agreed, and I poured her one, handed it to her, and then sat down. We both took a sip of our drinks in silence, which I broke after a moment.

“I don’t want a divorce,” I stated simply.

“What do you want?”

“Peace; I don’t want to fight with you, Diane.”

“I don’t want to fight either, David, but I’m not going to put up with you disrespecting me with your little whore, for the sake of peace!”

“Like I’ve told you before, what is done, is done, and I can’t undo it; Julie has my son, and as such, I am obliged to look after her – and him. Me doing so, is not to disrespect you, it’s just to meet my obligations to them.”

“Meeting your financial obligations to your bastard son is one thing, you putting her in charge of the Katosi project, which you’ve practically banned me from, is another – that’s the disrespect I’m talking about.”

“How is Julie managing the Katosi project, disrespecting you? My father and I are the two shareholders of that project, and neither one of us has the time or ability to manage all the different details of it on a daily basis, and Julie does; so, we asked her to do so, that’s all,” I argued.

“But you asked me to stay away from it – me, your wife!”

“I asked you to stay away because I don’t want any fights or drama between you and Julie, and since she’s there, if you show up too, of course there’s going to be a problem.”

She took another sip of her wine, before answering.

“The problem was created when you decided to sleep with her and make a baby! We didn’t have a problem before then.”

I couldn’t argue with that, and so, rather than try to, I maintained my silence and took another sip of my own drink.

DIANE

I had been surprised to see David back home, moreover early, especially after our fight the previous night, but I was even more surprised when he asked for us to talk and announced that he didn’t want a divorce.

Just after my talk with Tracy that made me realize I had made the demand in haste, he had unknowingly given me a graceful way to back out of it.

It was of course still a major concern and sticking point that he had put his whore in charge of the Katosi project, and banned me from going to it, and while he had tried to downplay his decision, making it look like it was simply one of convenience, and maintaining ‘the peace’ , it still stung and left me feeling insecure.

Part of me wanted to put my foot down and insist that he ends the affair and remove her from the project, but he had already made it clear that he wasn’t going to do that, and so, I was left with safeguarding our marriage from my side of the equation.

“You’ve said over and over again that you can’t undo what’s already been done, and I understand that; I just want your re-assurance that you meeting your ‘obligations’, isn’t going to put the kids and I on the back-burner. You say you don’t want a divorce, then show me that; show me that our kids still matter to you; show me that I still matter to you,” I pleaded, my voice beginning to break.

“Of course you and the children still matter to me! You are my wife, and they are my children; you will always matter!” he said firmly.

Putting down my glass of wine, I stood up and slowly walked to where he sat, then holding his gaze, picked his glass out of his hand, and set it down on the side table next to him.

“Show me,” I repeated quietly, my tone low and purposeful.

He stood up then, and wrapping his arms around me, pulled me close and kissed me passionately; it was a way he had not kissed me in years, a way I had forgotten he could kiss me.

When he stopped, his hands dropped from around my waist and back, to hold mine.

“Let’s go to bed, and I will show you,” he whispered seductively.

JULIE

With David’s cold, detached attitude when he left to return to the house he shared with his wife that evening, my insecurities about our relationship had shot through the roof, but I had, nonetheless, hoped against hope that my fears were unfounded, and that the coming days would confirm that.

On the contrary though, those fears were only amplified over the next few days. Although David continued to pass by the apartment each evening, and even though he still gave me the use of his car during the day, there was a palpable difference in his interactions with me.

He was not as physically close to me as he had been in the past, and no matter what I did to come on to him, or turn him on, or show him through my actions that I was available and open for intimacy, our sex life had come to a screeching halt, and simply become non-existent.

I did not want to push him on the matter, or demand for an explanation, in case I simply wound up pushing him even further away, but my heart was breaking, and yet I still had to force a smile and act like everything was alright every time he came by, and privately pray each night, that something would change, and some sort of turning point would be reached that brought him back to me.

As it were, that turning point arrived sooner than I could have hoped or anticipated, but under the worst possible circumstances, when almost two weeks later, David called me in the middle of a workday.

“Dad has been admitted in hospital; I’m not sure what exactly is going on, but it doesn’t sound good,” he announced, his tone heavy, his concern obvious.

“Oh my God David; I’m so sorry! Is there anything I can do?”

“I don’t know, I can’t think straight right now; I just need to get to the hospital, and I’ll figure it out then. I’ll get a cab there as it will take too long for the car to get here anyway; so, the driver can drop the car there when you’re done with it for the day, and I’ll come by after that. I’m just not sure what time that will be.”

“Of course! Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I tried to comfort him. “I don’t know, I don’t know,” he repeated worriedly, and then hung up as his voice broke.

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