“I promise to love you, even when I hate you. To cherish every single moments of our lives together, to make your snoring a sweet music to my ear, and to never complain when you fart. I promise to prepare you toasted bread and tea for the rest of your life because that’s all I know how to cook. I promise to love you and only you no matter what, till I draw my last breath.
That was the vow I took on my wedding day, and it can’t stop playing in my head. God! Who forgets such a wonderful moment? I did.
Jack and I were high school sweethearts, we met when I was in JSS 2 and he was in SSS 1, we were young but we were in love. We dated for over 12years; it was 12 fighting, tiring, but awesome years. He was everything I ever wanted, and was always there when I was bullied or grounded. Although, he got me into a lot of trouble with my parents, he was the love of my life. We used to go clubbing every Friday night, we went to every eatery in town, we skipped classes to go skiing and we had so much fun.
We got married immediately I finished college and everything seemed so good. It was like everything I ever wanted was finally happening. We had waited for so long for this, I was 21 and he was 25. Many said we were too young, and naïve, but we just couldn’t wait any longer. I mean, all we could see was just the two of us, and it seemed like we had it all figured out.
We moved to the city two weeks after our wedding. Jack got a job as a stockbroker, and I was an attendant in a coffee shop. The first three years were perfect, although we had no kid because we decided to give it some time, but we were happy. We used to hang out, and talk a lot. He would tell me things that happened in the office, and I would tell him of every wired customers I had that day, he cooked most of the time, because I didn’t know how to, and to top all, we had great sex. It was awesome, I mean I loved our marriage!
But, everything soon changed. Our conversation became shorter each day, and we hardly talked about anything. I thought we were just having a moment, and decided to just play along, but, our conversation soon became;
‘How was your day?’
‘Fine, and yours?’
‘Fine’.
The dining table became so quiet, it was like we had nothing left to discuss, and we hadn’t had sex for about 4 months. It was like he wasn’t even seeing me. I mean, even when he was looking at me, he just wasn’t seeing me. There was no fun in my marriage anymore. I tried to talk to him, but he was always distracted. He hung up the phone before I could even say ‘I love you’, and he no longer called to say what he would like for diner. My marriage was sinking, and I had no one to turn to.
Then, mark came. Mark was my college mate, he was in Jack’s class. He always tried to woo me back in school, but I never paid any attention to him. I was surprised when he walked into my shop, he said he just got transferred here, and his office was directly opposite my shop. We decided to hang out a little, and then we hanged out a lot. My husband didn’t even notice, he didn’t even seem to care when I told him mark was in town. That was surprising because he was always jealous of Mark back in school.
Mark reminded me of everything Jack and I used to be. We talked, we went on dates and he cooked for me. I stayed out late because my home was no fun, and my husband never asked why I was late. It didn’t take long before Mark realized that my marriage wasn’t working, and I started to wonder what it would have been like if I was with mark instead.
Then it happened that dark and lonely night, I didn’t mean for it, but it did. Mark had picked me up from the shop that night, and as usual, we went to his place. Then it started to rain heavily, there was a storm too, and the news said that no one should go out. I didn’t even seem to notice the storm as myself and Mark were having a good time. He told me of his past relationships, and about work. He was so humorous and he made me laugh.
He was cooking for me in the kitchen and I was watching him. He then wanted to reach for the salt when it slipped from his hands, we both caught it at the same time, and our eyes locked. We stood there still for a while and we were just staring at each other, he soon bent his head, and I stood there. I knew I had to move, I begged my legs to move, but I stood there, it had been a long time since I felt this way, my body trembled, my heart raced, and I knew if I let it, there was no turning back. He was so close when my phone rang, it was my husband…