Page 14 of Little Bitter Truths
“I didn’t plan on going there, not at first.I’d finished work for the day and decided to drive around for a while.As I did, I had all these thoughts in my head, and I kept thinking the same thing, that if we stayed apart too long, we’d stop talking altogether and end up getting divorced.”
The waiter passed by and glanced in our direction.The look he gave Cooper suggested he was checking to see how his customer was holding up.Satisfied that the tears had stopped, the waiter continued on his way.
“What happened after you arrived at Mia’s house?”I asked.
“Wren answered the door.”
“Was she alone?”
He nodded.
“Was she surprised to see you?”I asked.
“Frustrated is a better word.She said she’d asked me to respect her boundaries, and by showing up there, I hadn’t.I was sure she’d refuse to talk to me at all, but she let me in.”
“Walk me through the visit starting from the moment you arrived at the door.”
“The first thing I noticed was that she looked tired.And she was thin, like she had stopped going to the gym and had lost all muscle mass.We walked to the living room.She sat on the couch, and I took the chair across from her.Then she asked why I was there.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her I was struggling and worried over the fact that she hadn’t responded to any of my texts or calls.I said I knew she wanted time, and I was trying to respect that, but I thought shutting each other out wasn’t helping either of us navigate our relationship.”
“How did she respond?”
A softness came to his face, as if drawn into a memory.“She admitted something unexpected.She said at first she thought the separation would lead to divorce.But the longer we stayed apart, the more she found herself missing me.”
His eyes met mine, as if searching for a sign, any sign that I believed him.“Those were her exact words.I swear.”
I speared a few pieces of salad with my fork.“What else did she say?”
“The reason she didn’t respond to my messages was because she was still trying to sort through her feelings.She didn’t want to say something out of guilt or loneliness and then regret it later.She needed to understand what it was that she wanted,beforeshe talked with me again.”
“Had she made any decisions when you saw her?”I asked.
“A few.She didn’t want us to move back in together right away, and she suggested we start over, try dating each other again.She wanted to spend time together without feeling pressured, and for us to give each other space to see if we could find our way back to what we once had.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Relieved, hopeful, and, at the same time, terrified.I couldn’t help but worry about what would happen if I made a misstep.Would she pull away from me again?I didn’t know what to expect.”
“At any point during the visit did you argue or were voices raised?”
He shook his head.
“Were you affectionate with each other?”I asked.
The question seemed to catch him off guard.
“As I was walking out the front door, she reached out to me.I turned, and she gave me a hug,” he said.
“What time did you leave?”
“Around seven thirty.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“I don’t think so.”
