THE TEXT AND THE MEAL

Tired and exhausted was how Ella would describe Noah the minute he walked in.

The air was filled with a delicious aroma which made Noah's stomach grumble,

"I'm vamished" Noah said as he stared at the meal on the dinning table.

Ella smiled on hearing her husband, of course she knew he'd be hungry.

"When aren't you" she said shaking her head in amusement as Noah dropped his things and hurried to the dining.

"No! no!! no!!! babe" Ella yelled as she hurried after him.

"You need to take a bath first" she said closing the plate of food which Noah had partly opened.

Noah looked at his wife trying his best attempt of a puppy dog face but failed woefully which only made Ella burst into laughter.

"Well Good evening to you too" he begrudgingly said as he got up and gave her a peck on the cheek and left for the bathroom.

Ella smiled at the retreating figure of the man-child she got married to.

*****

Ella was arranging Noah's things when his phone beeped, she decided to ignore it and continue with her work.

On a second thought a little sneak peak wouldn't hurt anyone, she could sometimes be nosy, she thought to herself as she laughed out loud.

On getting to his phone, Ella choked on her own laughter as she read the message that had caused the phone to beep 

"Last night was fun"

Just those four words had made Ella speechless.

Ella remained at the same spot staring at the phone with disbelief.

The words kept repeating in her head as they stared her in the face. 

She was beyond shocked, it was written all over her face. 

"What was so fun about last night?" 

"Who could this even be?" she said to herself thinking out loud.

Could this be the reason why he had been returning home late of recent, she had thought it was work but maybe she had been wrong all this while and for that she felt stupid.

It couldn't be true,

It shouldn't be, what ever happened to together forever she thought.

She felt like she had been played.

She stared at the phone in her hand again thinking to herself that this could not be true. 

Had Noah really been making a fool of her all this while.

Minutes passed by as the emotions she felt went from disbelief to hurt to Anger.

With all the emotions running through her she threw the phone against the wall. 

She was raging as she paced back and forth awaiting Noah's arrival from the bathroom. 

How could he?!

How dare he?!!

Why would he?!!! 

All these thoughts ran through her head as she fought the tears that threatened to break free.

Just on cue Noah made his way down the stairs talking non stop about whatever it was that had him excited which only infuriated Ella.

"Babe" Noah said calling out to Ella as he noticed she hadn't made a comment on all he had been saying.

"Don't you ever call me that!" Ella screamed as she took angry steps towards him

"You scummy little piece of...Arrghhh" Ella screamed again as she stopped her self from saying something she would regret.

To say Noah was startled was an understatement,

"What's wrong babe?" he asked 

"Really?..what's wrong?!"

"You really want to know what's wrong?!..that's what's wrong" she replied as she threw his phone which she had picked up from the floor at him.

Noah stared at the phone confused at what was going on but his silence only made Ella even more angry.

"I'm talking to you Noah! " she said getting irritated by his silence, her eyes met with his as if daring him to lie to her face

"Babe, I need you to be calm. I promise you I don't know what is going on

I don't even know this.."

"Stop it, just stop it Noah"

"Don't play dumb with me Noah" she cut in before he could finish his sentence 

"Don't you dare lie to my face" she screamed at him.

Noah remained calm, allowing her scream.

He felt Ella was only making a mountain out of a molehill

They could sit and discuss this like the adults that they were.

The sound of Ella sobbing interrupted his thoughts,the mere sight of his wife in tears broke him and infuriated him at the same time.

It hurt him to see her cry,

He was angry at whoever could be playing such games with him and above all he was angry at the fact that Ella didn't even trust him. 

"Can you stop" he said with so much exasperation in his voice.

"I've had a very stressful day at work today, I don't know who this is and nothing happened last night. You of all people should know me better than this" he said pointing at the text displayed on the broken screen of his phone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ella said defensively

"It simply means I'm not a cheat neither am I a scum and if you don't think so then that's very disappointing" he said and left her side for the dining room.

Ella watched him go and felt guilt wash all over her as she realized she had been too quick to jump into conclusion, she had hurt him and it had affected their trust. How stupid of her she thought but deep down she was finding it hard to believe him.

Why though? She just couldn't tell, maybe he was right, maybe she didn't trust him.

"The food is getting cold" Noah said as he reached the dining table.

Ella got up from where she had sprawled out on the floor and moved herself to the dining.

For now she had to push whatever it was that was creating any form of doubt aside for the sake of peace.

She served both their meals and they both sat there eating in silence with a thousand thoughts running through their minds.