His Forgotten Ex- Wife

Chapter 16

Karl

The small smile on her lips didn't reach her eyes as it always did. The puffiness of her eyes and the redness of her cheeks told me a story that she didn't want to portray at all.

"I prepared lunch," I said with a smile in a gentle tone. I knew she needed this even though she didn't think she did. "Come on let's eat together," pulling out a chair for her I saved her the dilemma of where to sit. I wanted her beside me. Though for the years we have been together we have always eaten alone, anywhere it suited us, but now the dynamics of our relationship were changing and so did our habits had to do also.

Her hazel eyes looked over the table I had prepared. I had made her chicken soup, porridge, beef and mushrooms with mashe potato. She needed a comfort meal and this was what she had loved to eat when stressed. Something to soothe the pain she had to bear as old wounds had ripped open. With every step she took towards me, I felt the strings of our relationship grow strong. With shy eyes, she looked at me and all I did was just smile at her. I even made her favorite cherry pie for her.

Living together for the last three years, I knew her schedule, likes, dislikes, and all I could know about the real her. I wasn't obsessed with her but I did notice the subtle things about her. How she loved to put her hair in a low bun when she was getting off burning and the same bun would be put on higher when she felt energetic. She loved to touch the metals and gems. It didn't matter how many she had seen, she still loved them. Each piece she created came from her passion for her job. There was no in-between for her either she did something or she didn't.

"Bon appetite," I smiled at her, filling her bowl with soup. It was the most I was going to do for now. I didn't want to push the boundaries that we were dissolving. Filling my plate with my food I would sneak glances at her as she ate the food I cooked. She was eating and that made me feel relived from the inside. There were days when she would not eat anything and I would drag her out with me to whichever function I could.

I wanted to talk to her but I didn't disrupt the soothing silence we were eating in. She was hurting and even though she had put on a brave front nothing would ever change the the fact that she had been hurt. I respected her choice; she didn't want to talk about it but I knew she needed to.

The pain would eat her away.

Lucien had messaged me that something was wrong with Amelia. I called him instantly only to have my call declined. Worry was eating me away.

I will call you once Amelia is gone. He had texted back but I was already on the edge of worry. Moving away from my desk I had paced my office looking at my phone. The thought that Amelia wasn't fine had me worried enough but I added it to my misery thinking that it was all because of me. I had cursed myself in the confined space of my office thinking that I had pushed on for a relationship too early.

When Lucnie's call came I had already run a thousand scenarios in my mind as to why Amelia wasn't fine, the majority of them had me as the culprit. However when Lucien told me all about Amelia's expression and emotional state as she met this new client and how she reacted to a photo there. He said that maybe she remembered something but just didn't want to talk about it.

It was a lie. Her not remembering anything was nothing but a lie because I knew deep down that she remembered everything. I could see in her tears and dry-out face, that she remembered everything. In the sobbing cries, she had let out when she had thought I wasn't here, in the days she skipped meals, the way she would stare outside lost in her own mind with silent tears glimmering in her eyes. I didn't say anything because she wanted to keep a secret. It was her tragedy, her pain, and her secret to keep. I never wanted to overstep the boundary she wasn't comfortable to mend back then.

Filling my plate i ate with her silently. My eyes were on her as she relished in the comfort of the food she ate. The way she would close her eyes gently as she placed the spoon in her mouth was worth all the hustle I made to cook for her.

"I cook well?" I asked teasingly making her look up at me and halt in her movements. It was just like a cat got caught. Her face turned towards me with the spoon in her mouth and I envied the spoon with all my might.

I wanted my lips to replace it but I knew it was too early. She might think I was too drunk that night months back but I had been the most alive I had been for years. The taste of her lips mixed with a subtle taste of whiskey and tears allured me. I had one taste of her and she had been the only thing on my mind since then. The softness of her lips as they moved with mine was imprinted in my mind. How her slender fingers, which I had watched working for so long, moved through my hair made me feel like never before. It was more than bliss as if I was high and she was my drug.