Passion » Max Regnery

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He laid there, one arm behind his head as the other rose and fell with his chest. A week had gone by since his marriage took yet another turn for the worst, a whole week.

Max Regnery had thought things would start looking up once he presented Blake, one of his best stable hands, with her own horse. In fact, he was under the impression everything was good in his marriage and it was just his stable hand who was feeling down since the departure of Garnet, one of his former student's horse.

Yet, ever since the arrival of that horse, Deborah had been in a bad mood and constantly picking fights with him no matter where they were. Most of the time it had been at the stables, especially when he was working with the palomino in Blake's absence. Then it had escalated when he simply refused to get rid of the horse for trying to bite her.

Now? Now he had been kicked out of his own bedroom and was laying on one of the two twin beds that he kept in the spare bedroom. Coming home was starting to feel more like a nightmare than it had been when Blake was living with him. In fact, the more Max thought about it, he had looked forward to coming home more than anything.

He and Blake had a nightly routine of eating dinner together, talking about their day, horses, and ways to improve Pine Hollow. They would even sometimes watch a movie together in the living room with her dog snuggled up on the cushion between them.

Max sat up in the bed and swung his legs over. While thinking about the good times he realized his throat was feeling a little dry and decided he'd go get a glass of water or perhaps something a little stronger if he had it.

Quietly, he opened the door to the spare bedroom and walked down the hall, careful to avoid the wooden planks that's creaked the loudest when the house was silent.

In the kitchen, he flicked on the light, which flickered briefly before turning on and lighting up the yellow wallpaper. Then he walked over to the cabinet where he opened the door and was about to reach in until a certain mug caught his eye.

Chuckling to himself, Max picked up the mug to look at it closely. It had been one of Blake's favorite mugs, one he often found her drinking tea out of early in the morning when she would have trouble sleeping. It was a sky blue ceramic mug with a paint horse on the side.

He stared at the mug for some time, turning it over in his hands and running his finger along the rim where her lips had touched it many times. He then tapped the mug, looked up and realized exactly what he had to do.