Decades

Trying for the Sun

"Twas anaccident Ihate this t hing," Stevie typed without punctuation or appropriate spacing.

"I'm glad you have a phone and my number now. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this quality content," Lindsey typed from the front seat of his parked car. He smiled to himself like a teenager texting his crush.

He watched for a long time as the dots on his phone kept signaling that she was typing, but then no response would come. He envisioned the struggle that must have been going on with sending a message from her end and couldn't help but smile. And when he finally received a message that simply read, "Duck this," he laughed out loud.

Kristen had taken a wrong turn in the parking lot and drove back through. She saw Lindsey's car and could see him inside of it. He never glanced up. But the light from his iPhone illuminated his smiling face, and she felt herself smiling, too. She really did want him to be happy, and she knew that the only way to happiness for him was through the love of his life.

He was forcing things to drag on with her because he thought it was the right thing to do. And because he had been sure he'd lost any chance he'd had with Stevie. It had never been because he couldn't live without her.

Stevie was paying attention to him again, and that was causing him to smile. It had been a while since she'd seen him happy. Kristen hoped it would last this time. She'd come to a realization lately. Lindsey was the father of her children, and while years of being married to him and knowing he wasn't in love with her had pushed her to fall out of love with him, she still had love for him. She didn't know how things would go with the star-crossed lovers, but for his sake, she hoped they'd figure it out this time.

For the moment, Lindsey felt happy. He also felt like taking a risk. Before he could talk himself out of it, he was dialing Stevie's number.

Stevie stared at her phone, wondering why the stupid thing was so determined to have a conversation about ducks. She was ready to give up when it rang, startling her enough that she nearly dropped it. It was a goofy photo of Lindsey with a hat on from an awards show that Karen had found online. She had used it as his contact photo. It made her smile as she was figuring out how to answer the stupid thing.

"Hello, Lindsey?" answered Stevie, questioning whether it was him or not.

"It's me. Do you need me to come over and teach you how to use that thing?" Lindsey asked. "I'm happy to give you a tutorial. You just name the time."

"I probably need a tutorial if I'm going to keep this stupid mobile phone. For some reason, it thinks I'm obsessed with ducks," she said, getting a genuine laugh out of Lindsey.

She'd missed the sound of his laughter and wanted to hear it again, so she added, "I hardly ever think about ducks."

That drew another laugh. Just as she was hoping it would. She stood in her kitchen, grinning.

Lindsey could practically hear her smiling through the telephone as he sat in the parking lot, grinning as well.

—-----------------

Lindsey had been working hard to salvage his marriage with Kristen, even though it probably wasn't something that should be saved. According to some one-on-one counseling, he was encouraged to consider that he was unwilling to let things go when he should. He'd been forced to let Stevie go, in the physical realm anyway, too many times when he'd never wanted to release her. In his heart, though, he'd never stepped away from her.

As a result, his past relationships took much longer than they should have to reach their natural conclusions. His failed relationship with Stevie left him with a need to prove himself. He had a desire to prove that it had been her fault, not his. He needed to prove it to himself by demonstrating that he was capable of managing a long-term relationship, even if she hadn't been.