Mind Games - Win or Lose

Chapter - 7

Should have split this but I didn't - bit longer of a chapter. . . . . .

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Serkan had been shocked when she called. Certain that the ask for a divorce was coming. He had been talking with Dr. Sayir after Eda's visits and knew that she was lying to the doctor. She wasn't trying. She had done none of what the doctor asked her to do until this past week. And now she was in the guest room which just felt wrong. The desperate part of him took what he could get but how long could he settle for that he wondered. He knew his answer, as long as it took.

Eda put her few things into the room across from Kiraz's room, she had gotten her clothes from the closet in the master bedroom. The master shared the same views as the great room below and had a balcony. It was pure heaven to lay in that bed and listen to the sea wrapped in the strong arms of her husband she thought. Good Lord, where had that come from? Eda shook herself wondering if that was a memory, the feeling that she got was too intense for it to just be an idea.

They had a quiet dinner and put Kiraz to bed, Eda stayed upstairs in her room unsure of what to do around Serkan so she read a book and fell asleep early, the baby monitor by her bedside. When she woke to the sound of Kiraz's singing Eda looked at the clock, 7:15, time to get the day started. Eda hoped to talk with Serkan before he left this morning to get an idea of his schedule but by the time they made it downstairs she was disappointed he had already left for the office. She hadn't heard him so it had to be well before 7:15 a.m.

She had been so tired the night before that she hadn't had an opportunity to talk with him. No, that wasn't true, she could have talked to him during dinner but now that she was in the house her responses seemed to all be one word, 'fine, yes, no, okay'. At this rate she would be out of the house and back at Aydan hanim's before the week was out. She said that she was here to get to know him not to just be a nanny and so far she was doing nothing to show him that she was interested in anything he said or did.

Eda hoped that tonight would be different, that she would be different. She and Kiraz kept a similar schedule to the one that she had at Aydan's, when Serkan wasn't home for dinner by 6:00 she went ahead and put a plate to the side for him and fed Kiraz. She gave her a bath and then read her some stories before putting her to bed at 8:00. She sat in her room waiting for Serkan to get home but he still wasn't home by 9:00 and Eda fell asleep again without seeing him or talking to him.

The house was quiet when Serkan walked in at almost 10:30, he was exhausted but there was so much work piling up with Eda's caseload and his that there was no end in sight. He saw the note from Eda that there was dinner in the oven but he had no appetite. He put it in the refrigerator and took himself to his office to put in another couple of hours before starting the routine all over again the next day. Serkan wasn't getting much sleep, he tossed and turned, wanting to go down the hall to sleep with his wife but he couldn't touch her. He had tried to engage her in light conversation when she first got to the house but she didn't even respond to him. It didn't seem like she had any interest in him. He laughed at himself thinking that she was jealous. No, she just wanted to spend time with Kiraz and a nanny would interfere with that. It seemed that he was still irrelevant.

The schedule that Serkan maintained when Eda wasn't there was the same one that he kept now. The only difference is that she was caring for Kiraz and he could go direct to the office. Serkan was getting up at 5:00, or just getting into the shower at 5:00 after staying up all night trying to make a dent in the work backlog. He headed to the office by 5:30 and stayed there until 10:00 most nights before heading home to work at home. He was exhausted and emotionally spent, he only saw Kiraz when she was sleeping and he missed his baby desperately. Without Eda she was all he had and now he didn't even have her.