"This is interesting. Valerie told you Chorale told her she was leaving the country?” Caleb asked Kay.
“Yeah, that’s what she said” Kay answered, twirling a glass of wine in his hand.
They had been sitting under the summer hut for two hours and mosquitoes were beginning to feast on them, so they went inside and sat on the bar stools at the wine cellar, facing each other.
“It’s strange. You didn’t have any argument so why did she leave?” Caleb asked, still unable to make meaning of what he had just heard. He had already finished his own beer.
Looking into his glass of wine and avoiding Caleb’s gaze, Kay stated bluntly, "She might be pregnant"
There was a whole minute of silence before Caleb screamed, “What?!”
“Stop shouting, Mama Rica might wake up” Kay rebuked. Mama Rica was sleeping in her room downstairs. She had complained of headache right after dinner and had gone straight to bed.
“Bro, you couldn’t even wait! You didn’t even ask me if I was also ready to have children now so that we could both do the needful on the same day and then expect our babies on the same day. You don’t play fair at all, Kay Sanders. You don’t”
Kay just sat there, not saying anything. He was still trying very hard to come to terms with the possibility that Chorale might be pregnant.
“But wait. The dots are not connecting. If she’s pregnant, shouldn't that be more reason to want to stay with you? And I don’t have to say this but we both know Chorale would never cheat on you.”
“I don’t know….” He trailed and a look of confusion spread across his face.
Then suddenly, just like it had come, it left and instead, realization took over. He opened his eyes wide.
Guilt. He was feeling a lot of it.
“I…I know why she left.” He said, dropping the glass on the counter and placing his head in his hands. “I pushed her away! It’s….it’s all my fault!”
“Why, what happened?”
He told Caleb about the ‘fight’ he and Chorale had some time in the past, when he told her he never wanted to have children. He knew she had been hurt by that but he needed to tell her so that she wouldn’t get her hopes up. She wasn’t one to talk about things that hurt her, instead, she preferred to bottle her emotions up. But right after he had said those words to her, her expression showed that she had been hurt by them and that hurt him a lot, especially because he had caused her to feel like that. But it was the truth and it had to be said.
Growing up, he had seen how his mother had singlehandedly struggled to take care of his siblings and him. She alone had taken them through school while his father was moving across the globe, from mistress to mistress. He and his siblings did not deserve that. His mother did not deserve that. No woman ever deserved that. No children ever deserved that. And he knew that he was human and hence bound to make mistakes. So he vowed that, the better thing for him to do was to not get married or have any children at all and that way, he wouldn’t do what his dad did to his mom to the people he loved.
“How many times have I had to tell you that you are not your father, Kay?” Caleb asked
“I know, but I don’t want to hurt her, Cal.” He admitted vulnerably.
“This is not the right way to not hurt her, Kay. Telling a woman who loves you as unconditionally as Chorale does, that you are afraid of committing to her is just you asking her out of your life.” He advised. “You had all these years to deal with your demons and you didn’t. Why?”
“I was scared, Cal.” He answered, head lowered.
“There’s nothing to be scared about. That woman loves you, Kay. You shouldn’t let your insecurities get in the way of your love if not you’ll lose her forever to someone else who is ready to commit to her.”
That annoyed him but he knew his best friend was right. He could lose her to some other man and then she wouldn’t be his anymore.
He raised his head and turned to face Caleb, “Please help me find her.”
“I’ll try. But you have to promise me that you’ll use this period that she’s gone to think things through and work on yourself”
“I’ll try. I have to try”
YOU ARE READING
CHORALE SANDERS
Romance"I cannot tell you anything right now, but promise me, Mama Rica. Promise me you'll take care of him for me, now that I won't be here to." She took the older lady's face in her hands, looking at her with very teary eyes. "Don't leave him like I am...
