No Love Lost (Unedited)

Chapter Eighteen

MICAH

To say I had been furious with Tyler the other night would be an understatement. I wanted to smash his face in. It makes me even angrier knowing that he could take me to such a point.

It had already been three days since the incident. Amineh and I haven’t been doing much but arguing ever since. She was so angry with me last night that she made me sleep on the couch.

This morning I decided that I couldn’t keep going on with her like this. I couldn’t keep fighting with her over petty things and avoiding the real problems we had in our relationship.

So, I decided to take Mineh out to lunch and hopefully talk through some of the issues we had.

“Good afternoon, has Mrs. Miller already gone to lunch?” I asked the secretary at the front desk.

“No, she usually leaves at about 1230, so in about 10 more minutes. But I can let her know you are here Mr-,” she said eyeing the flowers in my hand.

“Mr. Miller, her husband. And don’t worry about letting her know. I’ll go surprise her, if that’s okay?” I said.

“Yeah, no problem, her office is that way and to the left,” she said pointing to the hallway behind me.

“Thank you Lisa,” I said reading her name plate on the desk and heading in the direction she pointed.

The office building was pretty big, but I could still hear Amineh’s laugh echoing through the halls before I even turned the corner.

I am sure that even without the directions I would have been able to find out where her office was.

I walked into her office to find her sitting at her desk still laughing. No matter how loud her laughter isn’t what I paid much attention to but the man who was sitting across from her, Tyler.

I just stood there staring into the back of Tyler’s head. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes for a moment. But as it sunk in that Tyler was actually sitting across from my wife and making her laugh like I haven’t been able to do in forever; it caused the anger I had for him to resurface.

Many years in the force have taught me how to quickly reign in my anger, but right now I was having a very hard time doing so.

It obviously didn’t take Amineh long to notice me since she was facing the door. She looked up at me in surprise, which quickly transformed into a guilty expression. Her alarm caused Tyler to turn around to see what was going on.

We made eye contact.

I’ve arrested rapists, men who abused their wives, pedophiles, the worst of the worst; and it has always taken a lot not to inflict the same amount of pain on them as they have on others. But never have I had to restrain myself from hurting someone like I had to at this moment.

“Micah what are you doing here,” Amineh asked forcing my attention back on her as she walked towards me. 

Somehow I found my voice and responded. “I came to take my wife to lunch, so we could talk. But Tyler will probably handle that for me too huh?” I asked sarcastically.

“What? Micah, no. We were just-“

“Shut up Amineh,” I said interrupting her, my anger getting the best of me.      

“Excuse me,” she asked as if she were waiting for me to repeat the words because she just knew she couldn’t have heard me right. “Micah you don’t even know what’s going on here-“

“Oh, I don’t,” I asked sarcastically, interrupting her again. “It looks like you are in here flirting with the same man that was trying to drive you and my baby home drunk just a few nights ago.”

Tyler had been quiet staring between me and Amineh for a while, and he chose this time to speak up.

“Look man it really isn’t what you think. I came here to apologize to Amineh and figure out how I could go about apologizing to you,” he said.

“Apologize? You know what you can do Tyler?” I asked getting closer to him, but I was stopped by Amineh before I could get too close. “You can stay away from my wife. You can not look at her and not even say good morning when she crosses your path. That’s how you can go about apologizing”.

I could see his jaw tense and he rose from his chair so we could be eye to eye.

“I think Amineh is more than capable of deciding whether or not she wants to associate with me. And I’m not going to beg for your forgiveness either,” he said walking past us to the door.

Before he closed the door behind him he turned around and asked, “Are you going to be alright Amineh.”

Did he just ask my wife if she’ll be alright as if I would ever harm her.

If I was any less of a man I would have hit him right there and I think that Mineh could tell I was about to lose control.

“I’ll be-,” she started.

Was she seriously about to try to reassure this man that I wouldn’t hurt her?

“Of course she’ll be okay,” I answered for her. “Do you actually think-,”

“That is enough Micah,” she said sternly interrupting me this time. Tyler took that time to close the door and leave.

I looked down at her for a second and saw the frown on her beautiful lips and her watery eyes letting me know she was on the verge of tears, not sad tears either. It was apparent she was angrier with me than she had ever been. How did we get to this point?

“We can talk about this at home,” she said not even bothering to look up at me as she left the office and headed to the car.

I threw the flowers I bought in her office trash bin and followed her out. The car ride was extremely quiet on the way home.

The quietness gave me some time to think about how immature I just handled things in her office. I knew Amineh wouldn’t cheat on me. But what did she expect me to think when she was sitting there laughing with him, alone, in her office?

I pulled up in the drive way and she didn’t waste time getting out of the car and going into the house.

I walked in the house and found her upstairs pacing back and forth; I could hear how heavily she was breathing from all the way across the room.

So, I stood watching her pace the room, waiting for her to tell me what was on her mind, like I knew she eventually would. 

*****

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