Crazy Bastard by Angelique Voisen

Author:Angelique Voisen [Voisen, Angelique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“I’ll see you tonight then, at the usual place,” Vance said, sounding dismissive.

Malik narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “What the hell?”

“Lakeside restaurant,” Vance reminded his husband, not looking at Malik. He focused on fixing his tie in the mirror instead, not wanting another confrontation. The fewer words they exchanged, the better. Every day, Vance came home, exhausted from work. He didn’t need an emotionally draining argument with the man he supposedly wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Hell, he could barely be in the same room as Malik for five minutes.

“I know. That’s where we go every fucking month to for our monthly dates.”

Vance frowned. Was Malik looking for a fight? “You want to cancel?”

“No.”

Great. Were they back to monosyllabic responses. Malik knew he hated that. “Don’t be late.”

Malik scowled. “I was five minutes late last month. You’re going to hold that over my head all the time?”

“You lose track of time easily, that’s all. And you know I hate sitting alone at a table.”

Malik snorted, and Vance mentally prepared himself for another jab. Every day started and ended like this, with them picking at each other’s wounds. One of the cons of knowing each other inside and out, Vance supposed.

Maybe Malik sensed he wasn’t in the mood for another fight. “I’m heading off to work first,” Malik replied, his voice curt, as he exited the bedroom.

Did he imagine the look of disappointment in Malik’s face? Vance let out a bitter laugh. What did it matter? No one could save their marriage. Both of them felt like fighters at either side of the ring, worn-out, exhausted, unwilling to fix what they’d broken.

Well, maybe their marriage had been falling apart for some time, showing cracks, but Vance found out later that pretending nothing was wrong didn’t fix a damn thing.

Moments later, Vance heard the front door slam shut.

He lingered fifteen minutes longer than necessary to make sure Malik hadn’t forgotten anything before heading downstairs. He touched the phone in his pocket, wondering if he should cancel the reservation, but thought better of it.

He walked out of the bedroom and took a slow turn around their apartment, remembering how happy and idealistic both of them had been when they’d bought the place. Memories, both good and bad, swamped him and he found himself running his hand over the furniture he and Malik picked together. He stopped in front of the ugly orange armchair Malik had fallen in love with at a yard sale, and thought of how they’d argued about it so much then ended up fucking on the damn thing more times than he could count.

The weight in his chest grew heavier. Maybe it was sentimentality, or it had finally dawned on him that if he didn’t do something, he and Malik would start drifting apart. One of them had to fold, compromise, and make apologies. They couldn’t keep going like this.

Tonight, Vance thought, he’d try to take the first step in fixing the clusterfuck that had become their marriage.

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