Five Minutes

American Girl

It was the first night in a while that Veronica had come home after Ralston did. He was still awake and eating in the kitchen. She didn't have the energy to talk to him but it seemed even stranger not to say anything at all.

Although now any communication they had seemed strained, very contrived, as if they were going through the motions of something that was expected of a husband and wife.

"Hi," she said. The kitchen was a wide open space so she was standing awkwardly several feet away from him. He was seated on a stool by the kitchen island. The colour scheme was similar to that of their master bathroom, though rather than a deep purple it was a darker indigo.

"Hey," he said, once he shifted in his seat to look at her. He had a partly consumed grilled cheese sandwich in his plate with toasted bread nearly burnt to a crisp.

"Still love those sandwiches?" she asked. He used to have a habit of them a lot late at night, ignoring her comments about it being unhealthy to eat right before bed.

"Yeah," he replied.

She was about to leave just as he started to speak again, making her stop.

"I'm sorry for bugging you about not eating when I brought you on set. You were just... acting really different and I haven't seen you eat. You don't eat anything at home either. You know I notice when nothing's been touched."

"It's fine. I'm over it."

"Okay." He didn't sound like he believed her. "You're still gonna sleep on the couch tonight?"

"Yeah," she replied.

He stared down forlornly at his plate, taking hold of his sandwich but not biting into it. "Okay, good night."

They'd been sleeping separately for more than two weeks now. Ralston probably assumed it was because she was angry with him but that wasn't the reason. She felt more at ease with no one lying next to her. The night she'd had to wake up early, every time he moved and shifted closer to her in his sleep it instantly woke her up.

And if she admitted to him it wasn't fuelled by any resentment, she would have to delve into the truth. 

She went into the bedroom to change clothes, then strolled back downstairs into the home theatre room. She could have easily slept in one of the other four spare rooms in the house. Maybe it wasn't even just sleeping beside Ralston. She hated sleeping in a bed.

There were two messages when she checked her phone. One was from a friend she hadn't seen in a while, Landry, who asked if they could hang out on the weekend. There was also message from a number she didn't know.

Hey. I wanted to know if you're doing okay? I haven't heard from you at all these last few weeks. Didn't you promise me that we'd keep contact? Why did you block me?

These were sent in a series of consecutive texts and it took her no time to draw to the right conclusion of who it was.

Generally, the reason people blocked someone else was to sever all ties with them. Did Daniel get another number just so he could interact either her? Why? His persistence was immensely unnerving. If she blocked his number again, what if he used a different number to communicate with her?

She didn't respond to him, instead using the block option again.

Because of her lack of desire to talk to anyone, she wanted to reply to Landry with an overdone excuse. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to. She texted her friend back saying she would love to meet up.

It was almost like Landry was waiting for the reply. She texted back almost immediately. Spa day? I bought a home package. I need to use it.

The word home unquestionably appealed to Veronica. She replied, Sure! Sounds like a lot of fun.

She set her phone down on the table.

Should she tell Ralston about the texts she was getting from Daniel? What could he even do?

Nothing. This probably wasn't a big deal anyway. If Daniel used another number she could easily block him again. It took no more than a few seconds.

Her screen lit up again and she sensed that familiar tightness in the chest that she hated. It fizzled when she picked her phone up to read the message and saw it was from Landry. She'd responded with, Yay, followed by numerous exclamation points. I'll come over around noon. You'll get your beauty sleep! Sound good??

Veronica replied back, Sounds amazing.

Landry, like Veronica, was an actress, though she'd actually achieved an impressive level of success. She was always busy on set of a film or a critically acclaimed show. On top of that, her home was over a three hour drive from Veronica's. They didn't get do see much of as each other as Veronica hoped. It also seemed odd that Landry would send this text out of nowhere.

Veronica would have certainly like seeing more of her, but they had their adult lives to manage. Leisure time, primarily for Landry, was scarce.

She made sure to add a smiley faces to articulate her enthusiasm when she replies back to Landry.

And then she fell asleep.