Keeping You

Chapter One

Juliet

'Don't hold dinner. Pulling an all-nighter.'

I read and re-read the message from my husband, Simon, a hundred times. It was my norm, but seeing this text every night, a woman started to get discouraged.

Simon and I have been married for eight years. We were once high school lovers, then lost touch when we got to college, but met one day by chance in a café.

We rekindled our love, our relationship, as if nothing had happened. We picked up right where we left off.

He proposed just after dating for two years, it was romantic and spontaneous, and I screamed yes at the top of my lungs while jumping in his arms.

I remember knocking him on the ground and laughing and crying and kissing. It was the perfect proposal.

I've always wanted to get married, live in that perfect house, be a good wife, care for my husband, and have a family. Simon, on the other hand, didn't want children. Which was something he had changed his mind after we were married.

We agreed that we would wait until he got that big corporate job with his own office, and then we would try. I was on birth control religiously the first year we had gotten married, which would throw me down a depression spiral.

I complained once to Simon, who thought I was trying to get out of it, but once he saw how depressed I've gotten, he booked me an appointment to get an IUD.

The thing was that Simon was determined to be the best of the best, so every time he reached his goal, he soared higher to the next position. It wasn't that Simon was a bad guy. He was my husband, and I love him.

He was just a hard worker and under much stress with work, and I wasn't allowed to bother him. I blew out the candles I lit for the romantic dinner I had planned, downed the two cups of wine I poured, and scraped the food into the trash.

Like routine, almost. I did the dishes, my mind wandering left and right, right and left. Eight years and even though I tell myself that I was used to it, was I?

Was I used to feeling underappreciated, unloved, and ignored? Sex was mundane and only when he wanted to bust a load after having a stressful day at work. Simon wasn't always like this, so rushed and selfish, but he was stressed.

When you become a wife, you learn to make excuses for everything they do, laugh through the pain, be resilient and push forward.

Eight years was a significant portion of my life, and after getting married, Simon convinced me to be a stay-at-home wife, and I agreed.

I wanted him to be happy with me and pleased with me, and I was always the more submissive one in our relationship. I didn't like authority or power, and I couldn't fathom ever taking control in or out of the bedroom.

My next-door neighbor, Chloe, thinks that Simon's cheating on me with his secretary, but I digress. Simon would never cheat on me; he'd never touch anyone else besides me because he loves me.

You couldn't be married to someone for almost a decade and then suddenly cheat on them. It made no sense. No logic.

I thought about it a month ago and joined the closest gym. I wanted to be perfect and beautiful for Simon, so why not work out and get more toned?

My trainer, Toby, was the one that encouraged me to try doing date nights at home.

Cook his favorite meals, light candles, and even break out some flower petals if you have, and it wouldn't hurt to buy some new lingerie; trust me, he'll be putty in your hands.