His Proposal

Chapter 8

I turned off the television and called for Sharee. I know she thinks I forgot about her punishment. I might as well give it to her while I'm good and mad. She came running.

"Yes, mom?" She says.

Aw, this was cute she greeted me like she was supposed to, no sass. She knows I'm about to dish out her punishment, ungrateful little brat.

"Did you think I forgot about your punishment?"

"Well, I was wishing that you would forget about it."

"It's too bad that I can't do that. You scared the crap out of me when you took off like that."

"I didn't mean to, I was just so mad and feared you would not understand."

"My love for dad has turned into hatred, and with all of the stuff he has done, I don't see how you can still love him."

She is very mature for a twelve-year-old, well beyond her years. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't.

"Don't let what's going on between me and your father taint you. Don't let it mess with your relationship with him, after all, he is still your father. He loves you, your sister and brother."

"Well, it really doesn't seem like it. He is never here if we meant that much to him, he would be here, and not off with some thot.'

These children develop new slang every day. What in the world is a thot? I'm just learning some of the acronyms, and here they come with these new words. I definitely understand how my parents felt when we were growing up. I seriously thought my parents were just nuts.

 "Here is your punishment. You have to wash dishes for the rest of the month. No television, and no time with your BFFs for a week."

"OMG, mom not my friends, please? I can handle whatever chores you want to give me. I'm begging you, don't take my friends away. You said you weren't going to turn me into an adolescent shut in."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Give me the cellphone, no access for a week."

She fell down on the floor next to me. It looked like she fainted. It took all of me not to laugh at her. She was such a comedian. She started sobbing, the tears started coming down her face. She started talking, but I could not understand a word she was saying. That will teach her to leave my house when she feels like it.

"Get up off of the floor Sharee. There's a sink full of dishes waiting for you in the kitchen. You need to wash them before I start dinner."

She stomped out of the living room and mumbled something under her breath. 

"Keep up the shenanigans and I'll give you two extra weeks on this punishment."

She stopped stomping and walked into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Gavin was taking too long to make his decision for me. More than a few hours had gone by. What in the world was he waiting on? Either he wanted to do this or he didn't. I hate it when they think they have the upper hand, so they try and make you wait for or do things on their terms. Let me call him. Times up. I'm sick of waiting. I'm always waiting.

I picked up the phone to call Gavin, it was ringing.

"Hello, this is Gavin."

"So, what's the verdict? Are we going to try counseling or not?"

"I thought I told you I would think about it."

"Yeah, well that was hours ago. I know you have thought about this since then. I'm tired of waiting."

"Good God woman. Okay, so I thought about it a little. Why do we need to go and spend money for someone to tell us how to fix our marriage? Why can't we just do this ourselves and on our own terms?"

"Because we need to be in a stable environment to discuss and deal with our marriage. All we do now is call each other, or see each other and argue. It's time for a change. Are you willing to do this or not?"

"No, I don't think we need to add professionals to our situation."

"Our situation? We don't really have one because you don't live with me, you live with her."

"Here we go again."

"Then you continue with this damn lie, and it just pisses me off. Let me go, Gavin. I'll have the divorce papers drawn up. All you have to do is sign them, we can leave with what we came with, and we'll split time with the children, but they will reside here with me."

"You've got this all figured out huh?"

"Since you are always gone and there really isn't too much for me to do, I've had a lot of time to think."

"Well, I'm sorry that you have had so much free time. I'm been trying to figure things out."

"What is there to figure out? You are not here; you haven't been here. This tells me that you would rather be with her. Does she know that you are married with three children? Why are you keeping her a secret? Are you afraid I'm going to do something irrational?"

"You are not going to let this go, so it's time to come clean. There is another woman, and there has been for a while."

"Tell me something I don't know Sherlock."

"Are you going to let me talk or not?"

"Go ahead and tell your story."

Although I had been accusing him of being unfaithful, I'd prayed that this wouldn't be true. Ironically, I'd prayed that I was overreacting or paranoid. He finally decided to tell me the truth. I could feel the tears beginning to run down my face. 

"I've been seeing her since I started the job at the cable company. She started a conversation with me while I was installing the wiring for her cable. She told me that she had serious issues with this company before, she was not happy with the service, and the only reason she came back was that she moved back into the area. I told her after the install if she had any issues call the cable company, and we'll come back out. She called me a liar and said if she called back it would be to cancel the services. You know this place needs all the clientèle it could get, so I gave her my number, and the rest is history."