- Jesse seemed furious. He pursed his lips, his
- brow furrowed, staring at me for a long time,
- then said nothing and walked away.
- I closed the door and lay down on the soft
- bed.
- The living room light shone through the crack
- under the door. I got up to turn it off, but
- found Jesse at his computer, furiously typing.
- The cold white light cast a distance between
- us.
- It felt like a lifetime ago.
- He turned to me, coldly asking, “Why aren’t
- you asleep yet? Regretting it?”
- I calmly went to the kitchen for water,
- grabbing him a bottle of coffee from the
- fridge.
- He looked at the coffee skeptically, took a
- sip, and his eyebrows shot up.
- “Sarah, what are you doing?”
- <
- He clearly didn’t like coffee.
- I took a sip of my water. “To wake you up,” I
- said.
- He glared. “I’m already awake enough!”
- I smiled. “Good. I thought you were living in a
- dream world, saying things like that.”
- He remained silent.
- I realized he was avoiding an argument.
- Was he afraid I’d change my mind? I didn’t
- remember what Jesse was like before,
- perhaps full of life, perhaps quiet and
- reserved.
- But certainly not this.
- My annoyance with Jesse continued into the next morning, on the drive to the courthouse. I woke up early with low blood sugar and slept against the car seat. Jesse, for some reason, felt the need to recount our history.
- He talked from the moment I started chasing
- him to our marriage, to renovating the house
- <
- -an endless stream of words.
- My head ached. “You’re such a good
- storyteller; why don’t you tell me how you met
- your other woman?”
- He shut up.
- But he also admitted to having fallen for
- someone else.
- I listened to his version of our story.
- In his account, I adored him, lowering myself
- to worship him.
- Without the rose–tinted glasses of memory, I
- saw how irritating he truly was.
