I remember one time, I was drunk. One of the guys we ate with made a move on me, and Everettended up fighting with him, losing the contract and drinking the wine for nothing. Everett became known in the community as a wife-obsessed maniac.
At that time I teased him, “It’s just a touch of the hand, that’s 20 million dollars, don’t you want it?”
With a serious face, he hooked the hair on my temples behind my ear and said seriously, “Money, not as important as you. Even if it’s two hundred million dollars, I won’t allow my wife to be bullied.”
The regret of losing twenty million dollars was gradually washed away. He hugged me tightly and swore that he would rely on his own skills to make a good life for me. Never let me drink again. He did and did.
For the next five years, we relied on each other and started from nothing. Ignorantly, we bumped into walls and fell down.
Eventually, we did get a place in Alderwood. His parents really identified with me and our relationship grew.
It wasn’t until the year before last that I felt sick to my stomach and went to the hospital to have my friend Jasper checked out.
On the way out, I slipped and almost fell, and Jasper held me up.
Jasper teased, “I just finished mopping the floor with disinfectant, so slow down, you’re still as bubbly as when you were a kid.”
This scene, as it turned out, was crashed by Everett, and Everett’s attitude towards me has changed since then.
I thought he was jealous and seriously explained to him that I had gone to the doctor with an upset stomach.
He didn’t believe me and said that I was just there specifically tofind Jasper, and he wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I said.
Then my temper got the best of me, and at the height of the argument, I said the last thing I should have said, “If you don’t trust me that much, get a divorce.”
How can I describe the look in Everett’s eyes at that moment. Disappointed, cold, and angry.
He was silent for a few moments before he suppressed his voice and murmured, “Good job, Isadora.”
He wouldn’t agree to a divorce and turned his back on dating all sorts of girls. While I was having an emotional breakdown hysterical and questioning him like a shrew.
He would always reply to me with a tepid, “Isadora, you’ve changed, I don’t feel anything new in you.”
So, the problem between us may not have anything to do with Jasper at all.
It’s just that nearly a decade together has sapped the love for each other. It’s not that I’ve changed. It’s just that he doesn’t love me anymore.
I slowly digested this fact, gradually becoming numb and not caring. It was even possible to calmly deal with his relationships with those girls.
As for now, it doesn’t matter. I had stomach cancer, and it wasn’t supposed to be for much longer.
Early the next morning, I packed up to go to the office and Everett got ready to go out.
Jasper called. When he gave me my prescriptions yesterday, he didn’t have a couple of them and had to pick them up today.
When he hung up the phone you could hear him trying to sound as relaxed as possible, “Don’t go to the office yet, come now, I’m afraid that all the money you earn will end up in someone else’s pocket.”
I smiled softly, “Don’t worry, I’m on my way.” With that, I hung up.
“Where to?” Everett’s voice suddenly came from overhead.
I was so shocked that my cell phone almost fell to the floor.
Before I could say anything, however, he suddenly chilled his voice, “So flustered, going after Jasper, huh?”
“I was going to ….”
“Go if you want to, and don’t come back.” With that, he pushed the door open and walked out first.
With the wind pouring in from outside, I couldn’t help but command, “Everett, put on another shirt, it’s cooling down.”
He didn’t stop walking, leaving me with only a backdrop, and a moment later he was gone.
I sighed and headed out the door as well.