Part 2I Can Move Mountains, Yet Not Reach You

My performance didn’t completely convince her, but she knew the facts I’d laid out were undeniable. So, she agreed to reconsider the divorce.

For the next few days, she came home from work on time. When her phone rang, she would glance at me and decline the call.

“Was that him?” I asked, my voice dripping with magnanimity. “You should answer. Don’t make him sad. You can’t give him a proper title; the least you can do is not make him suffer in other ways.”

She gritted her teeth, stood up, and disappeared into her study, closing the door firmly behind her. The closed door was like her heart—it hadn’t been open to me for a long, long time.

I understood her, really. People are tolerant of those they love deeply, and of those they don’t love at all. It’s the ones they used to love, the ones they’ve fallen out of love with, that they treat with the most cruelty.

She must despise me now. The very act of breathing the same air as me was probably torture for her. And yet, she forced herself to come home every night, to play this game with me, all because she was afraid of what I might do to her lover.

Poor thing.

That night, as usual, I slept alone. I couldn’t remember the last time Kelly and I had been intimate. In the beginning, I used to try to seduce her, but she always claimed she was too tired.

But a woman’s libido doesn’t just die. I knew she wasn’t tired. She was just… satisfied by someone else.

And I was a man with needs.

So, I had found a clean, uncomplicated woman to fill the void.

Before bed, a message popped up on my phone.

[When are you getting a divorce?]

[I told you, I don’t do married men! If you don’t divorce her, we’re done!]

I thought of her perfect breasts and long legs and licked my lips with a pang of regret.

A divorce was out of the question. But she sounded so resolute. I couldn’t force her. So, with a sigh, I deleted her contact.

Oh well. Plenty of other fish in the sea.

Bye-bye, baby. The next one will be even better.