THE NIGHT I STOPPED WAITING

by

Chapter 3

THEME:
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I took the chicken out of the oven.

I drained the green beans.

I checked the roasted potatoes.

I set two plates on our wooden dining table.

I folded the napkins.

I carried the salt over.

Then I sat down.

Mark came downstairs wearing the navy sweater I had bought him the previous Christmas.

He kissed the side of my head.

“Smells great.”

I looked up at him.

For half a second I wondered whether I could see the lie physically.

I expected something.

A mark.

A shadow.

A crack running down his face.

But he looked exactly like my husband.

That may have been the worst part.

Betrayal had his eyes.

His hands.

His voice.

His wedding ring.

He sat across from me and ate the dinner I had made.

“Darren completely lost it today,” he said, shaking his head. “I told him we couldn’t change the proposal at the last second, but you know how he gets.”

I did not know Darren particularly well.

But I nodded because I had been listening to stories about people in Mark’s office for more than two decades.

“He wants everyone else to fix his planning mistakes.”

Mark reached for another potato.

I stared at his hand.

His wedding band caught the light.

“Can you pass the salt?”

I handed it to him.

“Thanks.”

I almost laughed.

Not because anything was funny.

Because the normality of it felt insane.

The man who had spent eighteen months making me question my own judgment was asking me to pass salt like we were inside the safest marriage in the world.

At 9:30, his phone vibrated.

He looked at it.

Then at me.

Then back at it.

I knew before he said a word.

His expression had become familiar.

Concerned enough to seem legitimate.

Annoyed enough to suggest the interruption wasn’t his fault.

“Damn it.”

I waited.

He sighed.

“There’s an issue with the Reynolds account.”

I had heard of the Reynolds account before.

Or maybe I hadn’t.

There had been so many accounts.

So many clients.

So many urgent problems that appeared after dinner.

“I need to go back out for a little while.”

Usually I would have asked.

Where?

How long?

Do you have to go tonight?

Who else is going?

Will you text me?

This time I said, “Okay.”

Mark blinked.

He actually looked disappointed.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

The question nearly took my breath away.

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