DEAR YOU [Part 1]

Chapter 6

JACK

"Pearl called." I turned to Flo's voice. She sat down abruptly on the couch with the phone in her hands and her face, pale like she just saw a ghost.
"Yeah? And what did she say." I replied.
"She's getting." Flo paused for a while. It felt as if she was trying to gather up the courage to say what she had just been informed of. It felt as if she did know the words but was not quite sure how to say them, "married."
I could see the pain in her eyes. The way she was not ready to accept this fact. I saw her get up, still shock-stricken, and walk into the kitchen.

It had been three hours of silence now. Neither of us said a word. It was almost as if we had forgotten how to talk. I could feel the amount of grief in her heart and that made my heart ache more than ever.

"So, I think." I decided to finally break the silence, "we should maybe have dinner tonight?"
She put down the sweater that she had been knitting for me and answered, "Yeah, why not."

~~~

The beautiful fairy lights lit up the whole space and their reflection in Flo's eyes made them glow.

"Are you guys ready to order?" A sweet husky voice approached our table with a notepad.
" Not quite miss."
"I'll come back." She smiled politely.

"I was thinking I'd order steak." I looked up expecting Flo's side of order but in turn saw a dull face with eyes looking like a dam, trying to hold all the tears. She placed down the menu gently and looked at me,
"I can not do this."
"No worries, I'll order something for you."
"No, not this. This. Period."
"What?"
"This, Jack. Pretending to be okay. Pretending to be fine with the fact that I literally lost half of my family just a few months ago."
"Okay. Honey, I know this is bad but now's not the time."
"When is it Jack. And how are you so okay with it."
"There's nothing to not be okay about."
"Are you serious." Her voice now started shaking, "It does not bother you one bit that our only daughter didn't want us at her wedding. That she did not want her father to walk her down the aisle. That she didn't even care to tell us, let alone invite us to her wedding?"
"Florence you are making a scene right now."
"OH come on, we are sixty years old, I cant make a scene even if I try to."
She continued but now with the tears flowing down her cheeks,
"You said to disconnect. You said not to care because we would have our own life but guess what Jack, they were a big part of my life and I miss them and you now what." She paused now for what felt like after an hour, "I blame you."

My mind wouldn't let me understand what she just said. This woman, for whom I cared for more than anyone in the world and still do, thinks I would hurt her. I spent half my life making my father happy and half of it making my wife happy but it seems I have failed both of them.
I stood up as the chair brushed aside due to momentum,
"I need air."

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