The Transient Wife

Chapter 19

 They drove back home after struggling with Willie's car seat. Sitting beside Chanty's baby, Cassandra wondered aloud, "How old is Willie?"

"One year and two months," Philip answered her, his voice warm and proud. Heck, Willie was the only mistake in his sister's life that he was proud of. He noted his wife's calculative look.

"Chanty had the baby when she was what...twenty-five?"

"Yes," he replied. "And don't ask about the father. He's never discussed inside the family just so you know."

"Tell me about him."

"Who? Willie?"

"No, the father."

His brows furrowed. "Why? You don't know him."

"I'm just curious, you know."

"He was Chanty's long-time boyfriend during graduate school and he disappeared out of Chanty's life when he found out about the baby. Good enough for you?"

She nodded slowly. "What do we do now? I don't know how to take care of a baby."

Philip was silent for a few seconds. "Me too, but it would only be for three days. I guess it's not much of work."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"You can ask your mom to help," he suggested as he maneuvered the car to the left.

"She's busy with her little business and I don't know anyone else who can help." Her mother had a flower shop in the city and she spent all her time there.

"I guess we have to work on this one together then."

"Yeah, I guess so too." Cassandra was silent for a long time again before she said, "You know what? I guess we have to minimize our little quarrels while Willie's with us. I read somewhere that babies can already have memories of such things."

An amused look spread across his face. He scoffed. "You read it?"

"What? Yes I did. Women read stuff like that sometimes," she said defensively. In Philip's mind, only women who had plans of having a family would read stuff like that. He realized there was so much about his wife he did not know about.

"Can't imagine you reading that kind of stuff," Philip commented, hesitant to ask questions. He had no right.

"Then I guess you don't know your wife that much."

*****

She frowned when she saw his jaw clench. With reasons she didn't know, it seemed to her that Philip didn't like it when she points out that they didn't know much about each other. Not that it's not true, she thought. They didn't exactly know each other that much.

He had said once that he found it hard to read her most of the time and she could say the same thing about him. Sometimes, he would look distracted just by looking at her and then his eyes would flare in anger by the little things she did. And most of the time, he would look at her with a look that seemed like he was making some kind of tactics for his business. Mostly, it brought her some kind of feeling she chose to ignore.

In short, he's like an abstract book. He's as impossible as me.

She was reminded once again of her reaction when she saw Philip and Angelica's interaction earlier. She had been furious and angry in a way a real wife would have been. It was not a very good reaction, she thought. She knew—deep inside—that Philip was something more than what she chose to believe him to be, but their situation was different and too horrendously complex that developing real feelings could make it complicated.