Page 97 of All The Happily Ever Afters

My phone vibrates on our bed and I barely hear it, the distant memories of our past still lingering, but I do. As I toss the red chiffon dress onto the bed, I don’t know why I was crying. I guess it’s the pregnancy hormones and the fact that I don’t know how I’m going to tell Tristan. We didn’t plan it and I don’t know how to tell him. But I have to.

How did we get like this? To the place where we have another first we’ve both wanted since we got married, but I have no idea how to tell him?

Taking the phone in my hand, I smile at his text:I’ll pick you up at seven.

TRISTAN

Red is Ana’s color.

Something about the shade just suits her. The allure of it, the strength in such a bold choice; she wears it with elegance, even if her fire has dimmed.

As I turn up the radio in the car, it doesn’t go unnoticed that she’s barely spoken to me. Nervousness pricks its way along the back of my neck. I know she’s unhappy and she’s been that way, but I’m doing everything I can and tonight I can finally make her happy again.

“You look stunning honey,” I compliment her over the hum of the radio.

I still think I have her, she’s still mine because every compliment still makes her smile, that beautiful blush coloring her cheeks to be nearly as dark as the clothes she wears.

“You look pretty darn handsome yourself,” she whispers and it’s then that she places her hand on my thigh as I keep driving. I was waiting for that. Her little touches are everything. I’ve missed them so much.

With my left hand on the wheel, as I slow at a red light, I lift her hand with my right and kiss her knuckles, one by one, andthen turn her hand over, giving her wrist a kiss before the light turns green.

Her small hum of satisfaction and the way her shoulders relax is everything that I needed.

“Where are we going?” she asks me and I tell her it’s a surprise but she won’t have to wait much longer.

“Oh,” she perks up in her seat, a wide smile on her face, “the Blue Grill.”

“Our first date as a married couple was here,” I remind her.

“How could I forget?” she answers with a smile, her hand still on my thigh as I park the car.

“We sat at the bar because it was so full…”

“My hand may have slipped up your skirt a time or two,” I complete the thought for her as I put the car in park and lean over to kiss the crook of her neck. She squeals with delight and I love it. I love everything about her. What we had and, more importantly, everything to come.

We walk side by side, hand in hand through the large double doors of black glass into the elegant foyer of the restaurant.

When I give my name to the host and he leads us to the private backroom, she squeezes my hand and whispers, “What’s back here?”

The wooden doors open to a private room, with a single round table in the center, the chairs seated close together. The white table cloth is already laid out with candles, a vase with red roses, and a note on one of the plates. A note I wrote for her.

“Tristan,” Ana’s voice is tight with emotion and I simply kiss her cheek and pull out her chair for her.

As she scoots in, I take my own seat and rush things more than I wanted to do. I’d planned to make her wait. To wine and dine her like I used to before telling her. But the look on her face, seeing her break down like this, I can’t wait. I have to tell her. She’s been through enough. These years apart have been somuch harder on her and I need her to know that we don’t have to do it anymore.

“Read it,” I whisper as she stares at the crisp white envelope. “I’m not much of a poet or anything, but I have something to tell you.”

She reads the note out loud, her eyes watery, so she dabs them first with the corner of the cloth napkin.

I hope you know I don’t take you – or us – for granted.

I miss you every day.

When I said I will love you for always, I meant it because that’s all I want to do.

I’ve only worked so much, to get back home to you.

The moment she reads,back home to you, her hazel eyes widen and she whips her gaze to mine. “What does that mean? You’re coming home?” Nervousness and hope wind together in her voice.

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