Page 18 of Beyond our Forever

“Ha, you’re just boring,” she huffs dramatically. “You’re no fun, anyway, you’d better tell me what you know about the new neighbors.”

“What would I know? I just saw the moving truck this morning, surely you know more than I do.”

“But I bet you’re already baking cookies, aren’t you?” She knows me well. “I’ll just buy something later. Unless the new neighbor is in his forties, single, and obviously affluent, you won’t catch me slaving in the kitchen.”

“Don’t you want him to come with a white horse to rescue you from your ivory tower too?”

“No, my dear, I don’t want Prince Charming,” she clarifies. “Those are very boring, so I’ll leave them to you. I prefer the Big Bad Wolf… what a big cock you have… you know?”

I’ve heard this joke so many times. Yeah, the better to fuck you with…

“Anyway,” I cut her short, “I have a lot to do at home, so we’ll talk later.”

My chores are just routine stuff, what I really want is to find out what the strange gift means.

I’m still intrigued. I honestly don’t think I can get on with anything until I’ve figured it out, so I get to work.

I turn on my computer as I stroke the strange petal that forms the flower. It’s red and you could almost say it’s the shape of a heart.

I type some of the plant’s characteristics into the search engine and immediately thousands of results appear. According to the images, it’s an Anthurium and it turns out that the red heart is actually a leaf, and the other part is called the spadix, which is the flower itself. See, every day you learn something new.

So now that I have the name, we go to step two. The meaning. What are they trying to tell me?

According to Saint Google—who knows everything—the anthurium symbolizes eroticism, passion, desire.

Could it have been Bruce as Emilia said?

Impossible, he’s definitely crossed off the list, I conclude after just a few seconds, since my husband couldn’t even think of something to give me for my birthday.

I continue with my research, searching for clues, but the light reflecting off the ring I still wear on my finger stops me cold.

I look at the ring as if it was going to offer me some answers. The symbol of eternal love, the circle that never ends, a supposedly unbreakable bond, nestled on the finger that according to legend leads directly to the heart.

What irony, mine is so broken that not even a steel cover could rebuild it. My wedding ring. At this point, I don’t even know why I keep wearing it. Maybe habit? Like everything else.

What happened to us?

Where did we get lost?

We were good partners, and I think we still can be, even though we stopped being a couple. I was left on autopilot, to be honest, neither of us knew how to stop the routine train until it was too late. The brakes were off and it was charging downhill.

This is a dead end, an absurd game that isn’t going to get me anywhere. Annoyed with myself, I get up from the chair, put my hair up in a ponytail and start to tidy up the house.

In less than two hours I have already sorted the rooms, loaded the washing machine, and now I’m taking care of dinner. When my phone rings, Bruce’s name appears on the screen.

“What do you want?” I don’t even bother saying hello.

I hear him clear his throat, I suppose surprised at my sharp tone. What did he expect, a mariachi serenade?

“Can we talk?” he asks after a few seconds of tense silence.

“Only if it’s about the kids or something to do with the house,” I warn, not in the mood for another scene like last night.

“Is it okay if the kids go to Arizona for a few days to visit my parents? All my siblings are going the second week of June, and it’s been a long time since we were all together. I can’t go because of the project, but I thought that if my sister came to pick them up, maybe you would agree?”

“Seems like you already have everything organized,” I reply. “Was this call to ask me or to let me know of the trip?”

“Ilythia.” I hear him sigh. “They are my children too and I want them to see my parents, family is important.”

---