On A Thread

Chapter 2

Nowadays Brie felt livid when it was her turn to go off work and go home.
Home? Home wasn't supposed to be torture but she believed she made it tortuous for herself and her husband.
She hadn't been home in two days, returned no calls or texts from Josh. If only he had put in this much effort before everything went awry. And no she didn't have to work overtime, she covered shifts for her colleagues. Working as a sales manager at the skin care and make up unit of Exquisite wasn't demanding, if anything she should be lounging around and slacking off, the store ran an all night deep treatment and a sauna, it didn't restrict Brielle since she could use her colleague's accommodation bonus, not that she asked, well not at first, they offered and it somehow became a collateral. She had worked her butt off to be promoted to a sales manager even if it's not what she wanted for herself. To her what's worth doing is worth doing well, if she won't give it her all, she didn't do it. She applied this to everything including her marriage.
Her phone pinged, the screen came on with Joshua's message. She quit soothing her charred feet and contemplated answering, she didn't and just shoved it into her bag. He had been sending her text messages the whole day—
Have you eaten?

when will you be home

I made dinner, come home soon.

Unfortunately she didn't come home and she had eaten dinner with her colleagues. It wasn't enjoyable and she'd rather eat food made by Joshua than eat day old rice but she didn't want to ruin his enthusiasm.
They were far too many dinners and birthdays he'd bailed out on. But this wasn't revenge, it was her exhaustion. She had no strength for it, she had no strength to feel how she had felt, the anticipation always met with disappointment, sometimes she'd be by the curtain all night, sleep off on the couch but he never showed up or called. He had been so busy with work. Even while she was pregnant and had lost her little angel. Josh had been too busy to be by her side.
She slipped on a pair of white slippers, grabbed her coat and headed to the parking lot.
Home was cold and quiet, it had been so recently, the wick had finally died out. Brie muttered a lame I'm home, a small part of her hoping he didn't hear her or he wasn't home, anything at all. There's a feet shuffling from their bedroom which meant he was home.
"Brie," a gruff sleepy voice called from the corridor.
She looked up from her coat to her husband still so painfully beautiful even with groggy eyes. "hey." She flashed him a smile not wanting to look at him a second longer or risk her own resolve.
He stalked towards her and brought her in for a hug, sniffing her fruity scent, it still drove him mad even after six years. "I missed you baby"
Brie made a wishy washy sound in her throat. Tempted to wrap her arms around him, she eased out of the hug.
"I'm really exhausted Josh."
He anchored his hands behind her neck and when she dipped her face to avoid his eyes, he lifted her chin. "I know. You've been working so much." He traced the arch of her brows with his thumb, "I should call your boss and find out why he's making my little lady work so hard."
Brie almost chuckled at the sound of little lady, she loved when he called her that but she always whined about it and he found it cute.
"I ran you a bath. Soak in it and I'll make you something to eat."
Brie smiled with pressed lips and simply walked past him. She saw his demeanor dampen as she walked away.
The bath was exactly the temperature she liked, not too hot, not cold at all, the kind that felt hot at first then turned warm as it ran down your bare body. He had used her favorite pink salt and chocolate bath bomb.
If things were as they should, he'd come in here naked and soak with her and they'd let the night determine how far they'll take it. How bad things had gotten between them. She would have offered to cook with him or he would have made a fuss to jump in the bath with her. They'd been so joined at the hips and would even take a dump together if there were two water closets and then now? Now she couldn't stand her husband, couldn't hold eye contact or kiss him.
Kissing Josh, oh she loved it, she loved the way he nimbled on them and but on them ever slightly, the way he'd kiss her with no caution, no control and leave her out of breath. She missed his cuddles, Josh would wrap his warm body around her till she was utterly warm and now, now she wouldn't even let herself feel.
Brie cried in the bath, she hated seeing that slump in his shoulders and it broke her heart so much. Josh had always been vibrant and his confidence could swell a room, he knew how to command a room with his head held high and his stern jaw set in place, he had gorgeous eyes and carefully crafted face and honed it with an alluring personality. Little wonder he was able to grow quickly from a mere marketer for Elite finance to a shareholder. It killed her to see him sunken because of her. She'd tell him today, even though it will kill them both, it was best for them, better than having to let him go, a man who'd cry with her when her cramps hurt too much and bring her favorite chocolate bar, a man who'd remember her mom's birthday when she, the daughter had forgotten. There was so much to Josh that she didn't ever discredit but at the point they're at, an abrupt halt was needed. A complete overhaul and rewrite was needed. At least that much would determine if they still had something or she was just being too selfish to let him go.