Page 53 of The Regrettable Mistake

“I don’t hate you, Ollie. I hate what you did. I hate how stupid I was from the beginning, but I don’t hate you.”

“You weren’t stupid, Steph. That was all on me, too.”

Her stomach growled again and I grinned at her. “Why don’t you hop in?” I asked. She shook her head. “Okay, how about I ride with you then?”

“What about your car?”

I shrugged. “I can come back for it later or have someone get it back to my parents’ house.”

“Is that where you’re staying?”

“You seriously didn’t know?”

She shook her head. “I figured you were staying with Caleb all this time.”

“I was, but his extracurricular activities kept trying to spill over into my bedroom.” Steph sucked in a shocked gasp. “I never did anything with anyone, but after the third time, when one of the women he brought back accidentally made her way to my room, I decided it wasn’t worth the headache to stay there.”

“I bet it isn’t easy living with Tom and Monica again either,” Steph teased.

“Not at all. I caught Mom trying to dig through my laundry the other day for my whites.”

Steph scrunched her nose up. “Yeah, my mom tried to wash all my laundry when she stayed here for a while too. I was kind of glad when my dad called and ordered her home because he was lonely.”

“I think maybe Jason knew you were at your wit’s end and ordered her home for your sanity.”

She chuckled. “That’s possible too.”

“Oh wow, that sounds good.” Steph glanced over at the marquee offering up the Prime Rib special of the day. I didn’t bother to mention it was the same restaurant I had taken her to for our first date.

“It doesn’t look too busy. Would you mind if we went in and ordered something to go?”

“I don’t mind. Whatever you want.”

“You know we’re not on a points system or anything, right?” Steph snickered as she said that. “It’s okay to disagree with me.”

“Even if we were still happily together, I would defer to the pregnant lady when it came to food.”

Her smile turned to a frown. “We were never really happy together.”

“Yes, we were. Don’t rewrite all our good moments together because you learned why I wanted to marry you in the beginning.”

“That’s just it, Ollie. That is the most unforgivable part of everything that has happened. You stole all my good memories and turned them into some twisted version of events. Knowing you didn’t want to be a part of those memories, that I was just some cookie cutter replacement version of what you truly wanted made every single moment I thought I was happy turn to dust. It was all like a dream, and when sleep rolled away into wakefulness, I was left with that warm feeling for a minute only to have it replaced by a reality where my husband had never been in love with me.”

“I was in love with you, Steph. I know you felt it the same way I did.” I reached over and put my hand on her belly to indicate the exact time I thought she got pregnant because we had made love that day in a way that I had never done with another person.

“I thought something felt different then, but let’s be real, Ollie. It wasn’t that long after that you were with her. I know because that was the last time you bothered to touch me. It was when you pulled away, stopped coming home, stopped living the lie and started to live the happily ever after you really wanted.”

“It was never that, Steph. You and Denmark were my happily ever after.”

“We’re here,” She stated as if she couldn’t stand to hear me say that and needed to change the subject.

I let my hand slide free of her belly. “Do you want me to go in and order?”

My beautiful wife shook her head. “I think it might help if I go look at the menu. Sometimes, my mind changes at the last minute because of a smell or the way food looks.” She offered a sheepish grin as her cheeks took on a pink hue.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about, my love.” Her eyes watered a bit, and Steph quickly undid her seatbelt and awkwardly got out of the car. I followed suit. As much as I wanted to keep hammering home the fact that I loved her, she wasn’t ready to hear it. She damn sure wasn’t ready to believe it.

We were directed to wait at the bar when we placed the order, and I helped Steph onto a bar stool. The place was oddly empty for midday. I glanced around and noticed anther couple sitting awkwardly at the table we had shared for our first date all those years ago.

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