Page 40 of Ever After

He gets up from his chair and pulls my chair out and motions me to sit. “I wanted to make you dinner. Remember, we used to do this all the time.”

Flashbacks of us doing this come to mind. We made this a monthly thing. We used to take turns setting up a candlelight dinner and surprise the other person with what we were going to eat. I forgot all about this. It seems like a lifetime ago. Why is he doing this now? I’m way too exhausted to argue with him tonight. I’ve been in the same clothes for a couple of days. All I wanted to do was shower and go to sleep.

“Aiden. Why now?”

“What do you mean? I told you I was going to try for us, and I remember you used to love doing this.”

“It’s too late to try now. I’m tired and exhausted. Too exhausted to argue with you right now.”

“Lilah, it’s not a big deal. We don’t have to talk about ourselves or anything. Come and enjoy your dinner.”

I’m standing there in silence. I don’t even have the energy to talk, anyway. Let alone kick him out. The food does smell amazing. A loud rumble comes from my stomach.

“See? You’re hungry. Come. Sit.” He motions me to sit down in the chair he has pulled out for me.

Aiden pushes in my chair as I sit down. He lifts the dome cloche and reveals steak and lobster. Now I know he did this on purpose for sure. He knows I love lobster.

“You’re telling me you just so happen to make one of my favorite foods so I can have dinner and us not talk?” I raise my eyebrows and stare at him as he sits down in front of me.

“I wanted to bring back what we used to always do. When times were happy.”

I dig in. I’m hungrier than I thought. Given my appetite lately has been shit and I shove whatever I see in my mouth when my stomach growls to get it to stop.

A smile rises from Aiden’s face. “This means nothing, Aiden. I’m only eating because I’m hungry and too exhausted. If you didn't bring this over, I would have gone to bed starving.”

We started this tradition one night after a long day at work. I came home in tears. Aiden set up the candlelight dinner to cheer me up. The way he surprised me and revealed what he cooked made it even more fun. I wanted to make this a monthly thing that we could both switch up and do.

“What did you do today?” Aiden asks.

“Why?”

“Just trying to start a conversation.”

“I was with Lia,” I say, shoving a piece of steak into my mouth.

“Why is her car outside?”

I forgot I’m still in Lia’s car. She said she wouldn’t need it since she had plans with some friends that could give her rides. I took it home with me and she said she’ll have someone drop her off to pick it up.

I shrug my shoulders. “She had friends picking her up since I didn’t have my car. She said I could take it.”

“What were you guys doing for you not to take your car?”

Seeing he hasn’t touched his food as I look over at him. His hands are lying on the table, crossed over one another. It looks like he’s here to lecture me. “She picked me up. That’s none of your business.” I don’t know why I feel guilty lying to him. He’s the one who cheated, and I’m sitting here feeling sorry for him, like I’m the one who is cheating and lying.

Aiden stays quiet. I’m watching him bring the fork up to his mouth. I see sadness in his eyes. Never looking at me. Is he really sorry for what he did? I haven’t seen this sadness in his eyes before. Even with the biggest fights we’ve gotten into, he never looked like this. I look at him again. He looks like he aged more in a couple of weeks. Is he not sleeping?

Stop it Lilah. You deserve better. He cheated on you.

We finish the rest of our dinner in silence, and I head over to the sink to work on the dishes. Taking a step back to get the rest of the dishes off the table, I bump into Aiden.

“Oh. Sorry,” I say.

“Why don’t you go to bed, and I’ll finish cleaning up.” Aiden sets more of the dishes into the sink and looks at me.

“Are you sure? I can clean since you cooked.”

He grabs my hand and leads me away from the kitchen. “Yes. Go get some sleep. I’ll lock up after I’m done.”

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