…that employed emotion. I actually followed up on one of my Quickies, because it seemed germane. Take a read, tell me what you think.
She knew it was coming. Ever since she got that text saying “We need to talk.” She continued her lesson to a class of fifth graders, anxious for the day to end so they could run home to their video games. Her anxiety was in what was awaiting her.
She and Trent had been high school sweethearts. Their friends would say that if you saw one then you saw the other. They married after high school, and still went to college, the same college. That’s when she began to notice the change. It wasn’t obvious, in fact it was small, so very small. The college experience was to be one of exploration, something neither of them were interested in because they had each other. But she noticed that there were some aspects Trent was curious about. Namely, the interactions between the boys and the girls. Yes, he loved her, but he was also curious.
They would hang out with their friends for long periods, having the times of their lives. They would double- or triple-date at times. It was the ever-shifting nature of the relationships that caught his attention. He would find ways of delving into why this person wasn’t seeing that person and why that person was with someone else. Nothing obvious, just the usual banter you would expect. But when the stories were told he was riveted, focused on every word. You could see in his eyes how he imagined the scene, the heartache, the betrayal, the mourning, the sudden joy, the smiles, all of the things that come with break-ups and unions. These were things we never went through. We found each other early and had been together since. You could say that in never having to go through all of these entanglements we dodged a bullet. But the curiosity was plain on his face. She knew he loved her, and she him. She thought that was enough.
Perhaps it was that lack of experience that was making him edgy. They graduated college and she went on to be a teacher and he a corporate exec. They had been together for 15 years by then. She could always read him like a book, and he her. So when she would catch him looking at her with a blank look on his face she knew what he was thinking. He didn’t even know he was doing it until she called him on it. At the dinner table, or driving to the movies. Even while they shopped. He didn’t do it a lot, maybe once a week. Otherwise they were the happiest of couples, enjoying life and their bond, choosing to find joy in each other’s arms. His smell always did something to her. His touch always excited her. The way they would lay out on the couch watching a movie always made her feel safe.
But she knew it was over. There was a part of life that he missed, and he needed to experience it. He loved her and always would. But he needed to go and find that thing he’s never experienced. It was important to him. She wanted to cry, but she had a class she needed to finish first. Then she had to drive home. Then she had to hear him say those things that would ruin her life.
Then she would cry.
Arid Testimony 