Jake sat down at the kitchen table and admitted, “This is all my fault.”
Sallie rolled her eyes and slammed a porcelain plate into the soapy suds. “You’re damn right it is!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, lowering his voice an octave. “I wasn’t thinking right, and I couldn’t help myself.”
“Oh, you were thinking alright,” Sallie roared, turning from the sink and pointing her soapy finger at him. “You were just using the brain between your legs, not the one in your skull!”
Jake scrunched his lips and shook his head. He had heard a lot of insults in his ten-year marriage, but this one was the blue-ribbon winner. He couldn’t look into her eyes because, deep down, he knew she was right. What he did was unforgivable.
“Look at you sitting there like a coward,” Sallie said, trying to fight back the tears. “I never in a million years thought that you of all people would do this to me!”
“It was out of my control,” Jake fired. “I had no real intention of going through with it!”
Sallie reached into her pink apron and pulled out Jake’s phone. She didn’t care that it was covered in suds from her wet hands. It would have been just as well if the phone didn’t work, but even that wouldn’t solve their problems. She stared at the device like it was a piece of gold—mesmerized by the shine—such a light thing, yet so heavy.
How could such a thing cause so much pain?
Ignoring her fealty, she tossed the phone on the table. Jake lifted his eyes and looked at his wife. He didn’t expect that reaction at all. He imagined that she would have shoved it in the garbage disposal and crunched it to shreds or, at best, smashed it to pieces with a hammer.
“Take the fucking thing and do what you do best!” she said firmly. “We are finished!”
Jake didn’t say a word. His utter silence said everything she needed to hear. Sallie untied her apron and let it fall like a broken tree limb to symbolize the end of their love. “I think you’ll need this more than me. You can do your own dishes from now on!” She hung her head low and left her husband to wallow in his grief. The only thing on her mind was packing her suitcases.
The house they had built together was silent. There was no laughter, no joyous tunes playing on the radio, and no rumblings of a love so humbling and pure. Those days were over, but the house was built on strong foundations, unlike Jake and Sallie’s relationship. Slowly over time, the cracks crept in like an unwanted spider. A home that was once a beacon of comfort and serenity was now a toxic prison.
In that moment of discontent, Jake’s phone buzzed two times. He knew who it was. There could be no other. His eyes roamed from the electronic device to the dark hallway that led to the bedroom where his wife was packing her clothes. Would he dare plunge back into the very thing that ended his decade-long romance? Of course, he would, and he did.
👩🏻 Are you there, Jake?
👩🏻 Did you tell her about us?? 🤔
🧔🏻 I told her everything, Amy.
👩🏻 Good! How did she take it?
🧔🏻 Not well. But it’s finally over.
