Just a short story – My first in FP

Please don’t copy. Oneshot

Father

Cheryl understood me, but after nearly a month of neither my wife nor children not talking to me I started to doubt my choices. A lifetime built with a wonderful woman, grown children at my side versus an affair, a woman I loved and that understood me, yet someone that I had only known for 5 months.

For 5 months, I gave my life away.

She called me a few days after it was exposed. Asked if she could come to the hotel in which I was staying. Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion, like an automatic response on the hotlines for ordering a pizza. Half an hour later, she was knocking on the door.

When she found out, I returned from work to an empty house. Straight away I knew that there was something wrong. The air was stifling and thick, the house exuding a perverse aura of silence. After finding the constantly beeping phone on the floor I packed my bags and left. I knew it was over.

It started off with a cheesy line – that is ‘are you from Tennessee? Because you are the only ten I see’. I later realised that when she talked, she had a distinct Australian accent, proving my pick-up line was even lamer than I thought. She took it in stride though, replying with an even cheesier Texan accent. It was the first time I saw her, and I fell in love.

I only dated her for 6 months before I proposed. A month later we married in a rickety old church with only 40 guests. It was all we could afford. We were happy though. Joyful and content, enough to think that it would last for a lifetime. Naive.

We always fell asleep on our own sides of our large bed, but woke up cuddling in the middle at the beginning of the day. It was a routine that uniquely described our love. I started to realise something felt wrong when we would no longer wake up together but rather separate and cold.

For over 20 years we worked on our marriage, through highs and lows we battled the odds and stayed together. We were determined not to be a statistic. We shared our lives, from her love of post-modern art and reading thrillers that always made her come running, to my love of classical music and golf. We built a life together, and had two beautiful children.

Ryan and Jessica. The two things in this world, that I am glad to call mine. One just starting college and the other engaged to be married to a successful lawyer. Their lives ahead of them. Young, but not carefree. Not anymore.

I know that Jess was there when my wife found out. I know that she postponed her wedding because of me. I know that I hurt them. I thought that they would be old enough to understand. To realise that I did not mean to hurt them.

Even with my old age, I was naive.

For 5 months, I gave my life away.