Saved By Your Love

14. Every Step Every Way

Wednesday 24th June 1987

Michael's POV

I'm not an expert at relationships, and I don't understand a lot of the things that go on in them. I'll never be perfect, and things won't always work out the way they're supposed to, or the way we want them to. But that doesn't mean you can't try. It's important to take chances and to risk it all and learn everything that there is to know. I wanted to keep us together. Having said that, I decided not to tell her that I'd be visiting her prior to showing up, 'cause she would have surely made up an excuse to keep me at bay. But our last conversation didn't end well, so I stepped up, became the bigger man, and went to see her in hopes we could sort things out between us.

I kept my head down while waiting patiently for Sheri to answer. The door swung open and there stood the Sheri I knew and was used to, in a grey t-shirt and loose-fitting, light-blue jeans with her hair tied back. I took off my sunglasses and waited for her to say something, her expression was unreadable. She had her arms folded across her chest as she regarded me. Is she happy to see me or not?

"I suppose you better come in," she said, as she turned on her heel. I followed her into her house.

In the kitchen, the first thing I did was reunite with Joy, who was sat in a high chair at the island. Sheri glanced over in my direction when kissed the top of Joy's head. She was busy preparing dinner. I leaned against the counter and watched in silence as she stirred a pot and got different ingredients out of the refrigerator, like a tomato. The only sound was that of an onion being chopped on a wooden board.

"Sheri—"

She winced from accidentally scoring her fingertip with the edge of the knife.

"What?" she snapped, bringing her finger to her mouth.

"Are you alright...?" I asked as she rinsed her hand under the tap.

"Why are you here, Michael?" she said, drying her hands with a towel.

I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my red letterman jacket. "Don't you want to talk about what happened?"

"There's nothing to talk about," she retorted, as she put some strawberries on a plate in front of Joy.

This isn't going to be easy. Maybe I should start by apologizing. "Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for the evening to go sideways like that. I know how much you were looking forward to it and I know that you're mad—"

"I'm not mad at you, Michael," she said, her back to me as she busied herself at the stove. "I'm mad at myself. For thinking that I, that we..." her voice trailed off into a chuckle of resignation.

I tried to reason with her, "Sheri it was one time—the first time—and maybe it wouldn't have happened if we didn't go somewhere like the theatre,"

She turned around sharply. "So what—you want me to spend the rest of my life with you behind four walls?"

"Sheri, what happens out there is none of my control," I sighed restlessly, "we had no choice but to leave early. I didn't want to, either. But it was the only option,"

She stared off into the distance before answering, "I was frightened, okay? I didn't know what was going on or how to act. Looking back on it, I ain't even surprised that it went down like that...but I wish it didn't."