by Briar Lane
Which was nobody right now, I guess. Except John. He was the only one I wanted to talk to. I just wanted to fix things with him…
But, maybe I’m not even that close to him anymore. The way he reacts to me, you wouldn’t think I was
I expected him to come back late, but I wasn’t prepared for it to be after 3am.
The minutes that ticked on, the more anxious I felt. I knew he’d go out drinking with his friends after we fought, but the bars close at 2am, so where is he now?
I tried calling him to no avail. I even dialed the number of one of his work friends who I know about, but I got nothing.
I was so desperate to work this out that I tried to stay up to talk to him the second he got home, but I couldn’t make it past 3:30. I really shouldn’t have even if I wanted to. I had work the next day, and a tired conversation probably wasn’t going to be very productive.
When I woke up the next morning, at seven, I saw he was sleeping soundly next to me.
I didn’t even care about waking him up, not after yesterday, not after he’d come home at god knows what hour.
I wasn’t going to yell at him for that in particular, though. It’d just open a new can of worms and derail the fight. I wanted things to stay focused. I wanted to work things out.
I nudged him. “John.”
He groaned and rolled over but didn’t say anything.
“Johnathon, we need to talk.”
“Right,” he said softly.
“Look, yesterday was totally unacceptable and—”
“I know,” he cut me off, “and I know what you’re going to say. And I get it.”
“…Get what?” I asked cluelessly. I had to wonder if he was still even completely awake.
“Get that I haven’t been good to you, and I haven’t given enough to this relationship. I talked about it over drinks with some friends, and they made me realize I’ve been kind of an ass to you. I don’t want to lose you, and I really want to marry you, so I’ll change.”
“…Really?” I said softly, kind of taken off-guard.
“Really. I’m sorry for yesterday. But, if you can forgive me, I’d like to try to do things differently.”
Wow, I wasn’t expecting this from him. Not after yesterday. Not after things had gone to shit so quickly.
But, I was relieved. Because I wasn’t ready to end things, and, to avoid that, we needed to not give up. Both of us needed to be committed to making things work.
“That’s… that’s fantastic!” I said excitedly, and I kissed him on the cheek.
“Yeah?” he smiled at me. “So, you forgive me?”
“Absolutely!”
“Perfect, because I’m taking you out tonight.”
“Oh, are you?” I smiled at him.
“Yep, nice fancy dinner. More date nights, right?”
“Right!” I said excitedly. “Do you want to meet after work, since we’ll already be in the city?”
“Sure, that works. But bring something to change into. I wanna see you all done up.” He kissed my forehead.
This, this is what I wanted. This is what I had been missing. If he really could make these changes to our relationship, then it would be perfect.
I just had to hope it would last.
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