Originally Posted by
jdane
Part 3
HE saw her. Darn it, he saw how she froze in front of her car. He saw her hunched against the steering wheel of her car, as they passed by. All he could do was hold on tightly to his wife’s waist...It was all he could do to stop himself from running to the woman he loved the most.
Jane was talking about how their daughter did well on the school’s spelling bee a couple of days ago, while he was on a business trip. He had to gather every ounce of his strength to concentrate on what his wife was saying. The image of a broken woman, his broken woman, kept flashing in his mind, and he had to shake his head a dozen times.
“Andrea will represent the school in the division-wide spelling contest, darling,” Jane was saying. “Aren’t you proud of our little angel?”
“Wow, that’s really great!” Dave replied, forcing an excited smile on his face. “Of course I‘m very proud of her.”
Jane reached out and touched his arm. “You can come with us to the contest, right?”
“I’d need to postpone a few meetings, but it won’t be a problem,” he said, silently wondering how the situation became so twisted.
He loved his daughter dearly, and he knew in his heart that he did not want Andrea to grow up in a broken family. He knew what it felt like to grow up with only one parent. He knew it too well, and that was why he was still holding on.
Dave glanced at Jane, his wife of seven years. And for the millionth time, he cursed himself for wishing that it was somebody else who was sitting beside him. It was cruel. And even though he did not know how he felt about Jane anymore, he did not want to be cruel to her.
He noticed that Jane had been quiet for a few minutes already, and he was fine with that. He concentrated on driving, forcing himself to forget the other woman, even for just a few moments.
“I saw her too, you know,” Jane said, looking out the window.
With a lump in his throat, Dave managed a silent, “Who?”
But Jane remained quiet. He knew too well who she was talking about. So much for not wanting to be cruel.
They arrived at their home after a few minutes, and they were greeted by a cute and excited Andrea. Dave got out of the car and offered a piggy-back ride to his daughter, who jumped up and down.
He looked at his wife just in time to see her take a deep breath and force away the tears that were clearly welling up from her eyes.