Between the Flames (Ridgewood Series Book 1) by A.R. Rose

Author:A.R. Rose [Rose, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-11T05:00:00+00:00

That night, after returning home with our food, Lily, Jordan, and I ate in silence. When Jordan was finished devouring his plate, he asked to be excused, cleared his dish, and headed back up to his room to turn his video game back on. I waited silently until I heard him speaking with a friend through his mic. When his headphones are on is when Lily and I choose to have the conversations we don’t want him overhearing. I knew he wouldn’t hear us now, so it was time for us to have a conversation about our marriage.

I knew what was missing in my life within that three-minute span at the pub. I think I always knew, I was just never brave enough to admit it to myself. We had always been open and honest with each other, and I wasn’t about to start lying to her now. She needed to know that I saw Elle, and she needed to know that it fucked me up in the head.

I broke the silence, my heart beating wildly in my chest. “Lily….” I started, but she cut me off.

“Ry, I need to talk to you.”

Fuck. The last time she started a sentence like that was eleven years ago, and she was pregnant with Jordan. I swear my heart stopped beating. I could feel the beads of sweat at my hairline and my palms went clammy.

We said no more kids. We had agreed years ago that we were done. Fuck.

Our eyes met from across the table and I could see the tears in her eyes welling up. All the air squeezed from my lungs.

“I’m not happy,” she blurted. “I’m bored. God, I’m so fucking bored, Ryder. We’ve become this old married couple who doesn’t do shit and barely has a sex life and is just boring. I hate it. How did we get here?” A tear fell from her eye and I watched it stream down her cheek and land in her lap. She wiped the second tear before it made it that far.

I mulled over her words.

We got here because we married out of obligation, not love.

That was the truth. The hard, cold reality of our lives and the reason we had both wasted the last ten years. I raked my teeth over my bottom lip, staring at her as she stared at me. “Lily…” I began again, the scenario I had thought up in my head suddenly rearranging itself to fit this new reality. She was unhappy, and the only thing I could do at this point was to man up and own it.

“I agree, and I know, and I’m so fucking sorry. But… I don’t know if we can fix it.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t know if I want to fix it.”

I held my breath, watching her face for a reaction.

We sat in more silence, both of us thinking, reflecting on everything that had transpired within the last 10 years of our marriage. At least, that’s what I was thinking about.

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