Rain

Chapter 18

Their date took them out to a place she had never seen before, which was the road; they sat on the bonnet of his car, just by the road side. He brought out a bottle of sparkling wine. For the first time around him, she was cautious as she tried to check the alcohol content on the label, she sighed seeing it was alcohol free.

The road was hardly used and only two cars had driven by so far, she sat quietly holding the plastic cup he had given her. He had already taken two swigs of the cup and fetched himself a third. Peaceful silence stretched between them as the wind rustled the knee length grass on both sides of the road; she mirrored the opposite of what was happening in her mind, she tried to believe that at least he wouldn’t be guilty of what she thought. Right now she was ready to let it all out.

“Are you okay?”

She turned her gaze to him and just stared at him, he inched himself closer, “You trying to assess my handsomeness?” His thick eyebrows wiggled suggestively and a toothy grin appeared, if she wasn’t thinking so hard in that moment, she would have laughed at his toothpaste commercial smile. Fred was a handsome man that wasn’t easily denied, but his handsomeness wasn’t enough to blind her to the fact that he broke her trust by cheating on her.

“What happened between you and Nessa?” the instant she asked that a car drove by quickly and quiet noisily. She heard Fred take a sharp breath, “What?”

Pushing herself from the top of the car, she landed on her feet and turned to stand right in front of him, “I think I have to rephrase my question. What has been going on between you and Nessa?”

He tried to take her hand, which she deftly moved out of his reach, “Rain?” his voice sounded like a whisper.

“Just tell me the truth. How long?!”  She looked at him blinking angrily at the tears that were starting to cloud her vision. She was not going to cry now.

Realization crossed his face as his mouth opened and closed with no words coming out.

“Are you going to speak or not?”

“You were there that day” he said quietly, she nodded waiting for him to speak, trying her hardest to prevent the memory that had been burned into her mind from popping up, a picture of betrayal.

“I’m so sorry Rain. I love you and she .......”

“What? She was just a fling, is that what you are going to defend yourself with?”

He shook his head dropping the plastic cup on the bonnet and staring at her, a pleading look appearing on his face, “No, it was a onetime thing. It didn’t mean a thing, it just happened”

“Yeah and you decided to keep it from me too, let me guess that decision too just happened” the disposable cup was forgotten as she had dropped it sometime as she had been questioning him.

“Defend yourself! Go on, find new lies to cover it up”

“I’m human okay! I make mistakes!”

“I know you do, I’m human too, and I’m more hurt you didn’t trust me enough to tell me what had transpired between you and Nessa. And the fact that you were ready to build our marriage on a foundation of lies, marriage is built on trust Fred. You surely know that fact. Plus she’s my cousin, how could you?!”

Taking steps back when he got off the car and attempted to grab her hand once again, she continued to chide herself not to cry no matter how much she was hurting at that moment. She prayed for strength and patience to keep her anger in check.

Fred went silent his eyes cast down unable to meet her eyes. She wasn’t going to let him get to her; she was the one he had betrayed with her cousin. A picture of Nessa begging him not to make her have an abortion popped into mind, Nessa’s exact words had been, “If you won’t let her know about what happened between us, just please do not ask me to abort this baby, please don’t”.