Page 2 of Forgotten Romance

My nostrils flare because he doesn’t get it. I married Davey because he made me feel like I was his entire world, but little by little, that world was taken away from me and given to his work. I want to have a husband who loves me. Who’s so excited to get home to see me that he’d never miss his flight. Never want to be away a week at a time in the first place. Why can’t he be as obsessed with me as I am with him?

I swallow roughly, dreading asking my next question. I’ve thrown it at him in fits of rage before, but this might be the only time I’ve meant it. “Is there someone else?”

“Someone else? Come on, Mack.”

“That wasn’t a no.”

“Because why the hell would you ask that in the first place? I love you. I love our kids. I’m sitting here being told I’m a shitty dad and husband, and now you’re asking if I’m cheating on you?” He presses his fingers into his eye sockets. “I … Every time. Every time I get home lately. Every, single, damn time. I can’t keep doing this. I’m exhausted.”

“Try being a single parent.”

He jolts like I’ve hit him. “Ouch.”

I blink, spilling tears onto my cheeks. “I’m sorry. It’s … I can’t … I need my husband.”

“You have me.”

“No, I don’t. You think it hurts you to leave? Every time you walk out the door, it’s like my heart’s being ripped out. You say you love me, but I haven’t felt it in a really long time. And I’m so damn sick of staying awake all night, not knowing where you are and who you’re with and if this will be the time you come home and say you’ve had enough of me.”

“But you’re saying you’ve had enough of me?”

My knees are bouncing up and down, because am I? I don’t know. I don’t have a solution. I’m scared and confused. I’m sick of feeling sick.

“All I know is that I can’t keep going like this.”

“You know I’ve tried to find something else, but nothing has been a good fit.”

Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. The last year has been a blur. “It’s too much.”

“What are you saying?”

“Maybe … If you can’t give up work … maybe you need to give up us.” My heart strangles at the words, but maybe this is what he needs. Maybe this will be the wake-up call for Davey to realize what matters most in life. He’s amazing at what he does, he earns bucketloads of money, but we don’t need all that. We just need him home again.

“What are you saying?”

“We both can’t do this anymore, so …”

“Are you … are you saying you want a divorce?”

A divorce? Holy fuck, that sounds final. But if I’m going to push him back to us, I need to follow through. A divorce sounds exactly like the kind of world-ending finality he needs to take a step back and look at what he’s doing to us. “I … I think so.”

Davey breaks down into tears, and I’m not far behind him. I love him so fucking much, want to spend my whole fucking life with him, and if he feels anything even close to what I do, he’ll make the right choice.

He’ll choose us.

I give him all the time he needs for how serious this is to sink in.

Davey stands from the couch and pulls me up and into his arms. He holds me tight, crushes me to him, and we cry together for so long I almost forget what I’m crying about. Almost.

And when he pulls back, I wait for him to tell me he’ll fix it. He’ll sort something out with his job. He’ll be here for us.

But when he opens his mouth, those aren’t the words that come.

“If that’s what you want, then okay. I’ll look into how we do it in the morning.”

A rush echoes in my ears, and I realize it’s the sound of my life completely falling apart.

1

---