Torin and Summer

Chapter 1 (Summer): Knock-Knock

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA 

"You're seriously going to spend your Saturday afternoon with Bridgette and her son again? I thought we were going to get some work done around here today. Seriously, Torin, I don't even feel that great and I'm still willing to work because we have so much to catch up on."

"It's her son's play and she asked me to come support him."

Shaking my head, I regarded him angrily. "And whenever she asks anything of you, you go running. And isn't it funny that she never asks me to come with? And neither do you, for that matter."

"I can't believe you're jealous of Bridgette! Her husband died overseas, for God's sake!"

"Yes, and she has my husband to replace hers while I'm left with nothing!"

His face turned to stone. "I promised him I'd help her and their son out. While he bled out in my arms, I made a fucking promise to him so he could die with that worry off his chest."

"So you're willing to keep a promise at the expense of your own marriage? Because that's what it's coming to."

"If you'd stop acting like a crazy, jealous woman, if you'd just look at this logically, you'd know I'm just helping her out."

"It's gotten way past helping her out. You're over there all the time. You eat dinner with them a couple of nights a week. You go to her son's plays and his games on weekends. You coach his team. When she needs help with her house, you can't get over there fast enough. In the meantime, I can't use one of the sinks in the bathroom and the toilet runs constantly."

"I can't even deal with you."

"That's because you don't deal with me anymore, Torin. But you sure as hell deal with Bridgette. Whatever Bridgette wants, Bridgette gets. And she clearly wants my husband...and she has him."

"Your jealousy is making you into someone I don't even know anymore."

I rubbed my stomach to ease the ache. "How would you know me anymore? For the last year and a half since you were discharged, you're with Bridgette all the time. Poor helpless Bridgette who didn't even need to look for a new husband because her husband made sure to secure the succession."

"Wow. Just wow. That just proves you've totally gone off the deep end. You're so jealous, you've lost all compassion for Bridgette and her son."

"I had plenty of compassion at first, until I realized she was slowly and surely and deliberately taking my husband from me and you were going right along with her."

"I've got to get going or I'll be late for his play. I don't have time for your bullshit."

About an hour after he left, the pains in my stomach were so bad, I knew I needed to go to the hospital. I called and texted Torin, but he didn't even read my texts, much less respond. I was afraid to drive myself, so I headed across the street. By the time I made it over to my neighbor's house, I could barely stand upright from the pain. Shannon opened her door, and I heard her sharp exclamation as she grabbed my arms, trying to keep me on my feet while she was shouting for her husband.

Forty-five minutes later, I was on some drugs through my IV as they prepped me for surgery. Emergency appendectomy. Good times.

Shannon sat in the chair next to me, promising me she'd wait until my husband arrived before she left. It was beginning to appear that she'd be here for a long, long time.

"Still no answer?" she asked, trying not to let her pity show.

I looked at my phone and shook my head. Twenty calls and fifty texts later, no answer from my husband.

I will forever blame the pain meds for what I did next.

I checked his IG account, and there he was, tagged in a picture with Bridgette and her son at her son's play. Smiling huge.

Taking a selfie, clearly in a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown with my IV showing, I tagged Torin and Bridgette. But unlike Bridgette's picture, Torin wasn't in mine. I was as alone as I'd been for the last eighteen months.

Getting ready to have an emergency appendectomy. Thank heavens for good neighbors because my husband is too busy playing happy family with Bridgette and her son to be where he should be: with his wife at the hospital.

Not two minutes later, they wheeled me to the OR and they put me under so I could no longer feel the pain in my abdomen...or my heart.

I slowly opened my eyes, my memories coming back in pieces. Pain. Surgery. A picture of something...

The pain meds were doing wondrous things to me because I didn't feel anything.

"Hey, sweetheart," a deep voice said from my left.

Oh yes. That. I remembered now. A picture of my husband with Bridgette and her son. The perfect non-family family.

I didn't turn my face to him.

"Are you in pain? Do you want the nurse?"

Yes, I am in pain as a matter of fact. But it has nothing to do with my surgery.

His fingers trailed along the back of my hand. "I was worried, Summer."

Fun fact: laughing immediately after an appendectomy hurts.

"Worried you'd have to leave Bridgette all by her lonesome for an hour or so while you made an appearance with me?"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there --"

"No need. You were with your family. I understand completely."

"That's not fair."

"Just go. I don't even want you here."

"You don't mean that. It's just the pain talking."

"No, it's the fact that my husband wasn't there when I needed him. Because you were with the two people who really matter to you. The two people you choose to spend your time with."

"I feel horrible --"

"No. I feel horrible that I've been pretending for the last year and a half that our marriage wasn't disintegrating."

"Don't say that!"

"I want a divorce, Torin. Seeing you with her, with her son...the three of you so happy while you couldn't even be bothered to answer all of the calls I made to you, all of the texts I sent. You couldn't be bothered with your wife. I'm just so tired of fighting a one-sided war to keep you with me, so --"

"I had to turn my phone off during his play. I came right over as soon as I got your message."

"Was Bridgette OK with you leaving? Didn't she have a post-play dinner or something to keep you there a little longer?" 

Apparently, pain meds removed all filters on your mouth.

"Don't be like that."

"After our divorce, you won't have to worry about me being like anything. You can move in with her and marry her. You're over there enough anyway so it's not like it's going to be a huge shift."

"We're not getting divorced, Summer. You're just talking crazy from the pain meds."

"We most definitely are. You being with her and not me when I needed you was the absolute last straw. I am done fighting another woman for you and losing."

"Stop --"

"Knock-knock," a cheery voice called from the doorway.

You know what I hate? People who say knock-knock.

You know what I hate even more? People who say knock-knock named Bridgette.