Make A Wish - (Roman Reigns)

Chapter 18

"What are you doing, Joe?" Galina asked impatiently Thursday afternoon as he pushed her into the living room.

"Sit down, close your eyes and you'll see," he replied.

She sighed. "This better be good because I have stuff to do before the kids get home."

He situated everything on the coffee table in front of her. "Alright...now!"

Galina slowly blinked open her eyes to see the bouquet of roses, purse and jewelry box. She didn't look nearly as excited as he expected. "What is all this?"

"Gifts..."

"That much is obvious but why?" she questioned.

"I need to have a reason to shower my own wife with gifts?" he asked, defensively.

She didn't reply, instead leaning forward to pick up the purse. "I already have this bag, same color and all. As a matter of fact, you were with me when I got it."

"I was?" he blinked. "That's no problem. I can take it back and exchange it for another."

"That won't be necessary," she said, picking up the jewelry box. Her eyes widened when she saw the large hanging diamond on the necklace inside. "How much did this cost?"

"It doesn't matter. I recently signed a new contract and I get bonuses for the side work I've been doing at the hospitals."

"Joe, all of this is lovely but I can't help but feel like you're overcompensating for something," she said, which caused him to sit down in shock. She knew. This was it. "What has it been? Like 3 or 4 times in 3 weeks. It used to be 3 or 4 times a day when you were home to get your fill before going back on the road. It's obvious what's been going on."

He dropped his head, knowing he had no other choice but to admit the truth, beg for her forgiveness and try to do anything he could to make it right. "Galina, I am so sorry."

"For what? It's nothing to be ashamed of," she shook her head and that's when he realized they weren't talking about the same thing. "I know that you're still taking certain pills and I was curious so I looked them up and on one a potential side effect is low libido."

He didn't say anything because to confirm it would mean telling yet another lie. If what last week proved nothing else, it was that his sex drive was fine. His problem wasn't that he wasn't attracted to her and it wasn't that he didn't want her anymore. It was just there was too confliction going on inside of him and he knew that he wasn't being honest. He hated that this put worries into her head to the point where she had to do research. "Galina, I just want you to know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you."

This plan totally backfired. He thought making her happy with this display would absolve some of his guilt but it only made it worse. Why he thought material things would make up for betraying her trust. He had to get it together for tonight or else.

After another successful hospital visit the next day, he headed to the car followed by Robyn. He climbed in the back and she followed.

"Hey, there's a mall right across the street and I want to go. I promise it'll take less than 10 minutes because I already know the store and what I want. Please, guys," she pouted.

"It's fine by me but I'm not the only one in here," the driver said.

"Yeah, it's cool," he nodded and they were off. She got out of the car and stomped through the parking lot like she was on a mission. He silently wondered what she was looking for. Maybe she was booked in a segment tonight and needed an outfit.

In less than 10 minutes as promised, the driver whistled. "Someone's going to have a good time tonight."

"What the..." Roman looked out of the window to see her walking across the parking lot carrying 6 Victoria's Secret shopping bags, 3 on each arm.