A Romantic Reunion on a Child's Birthday

Outside Junic lodge, a male and a female dog growled and barked. 

Inside, Mr. Matthew sat in the swivel chair by the window flipping through the pages of the book he was trying hard to read. He was distracted by the dogs' incessant growling and barking. 

The dogs growled and started barking again, something they had been doing intermittently for God-knows-how-long. It wasn't the sort of barking made when a dog sees a new person around their territory. The barking was as if they were fighting for something and it was disturbing the whole neighborhood. 

"Shut up!" Mr. Matthew shouted at the dogs he couldn't even see and slapped shut the book he was holding. He adjusted his spectacles over his pointed nose and got up. He walked across his big parlour to his mini bar by the corner to douse his rising anger with a liquor. As he drank, something struck him - his relationship with his wife. In his assessment, there was no difference between them and the two barking dogs. Those dogs had been growling and barking for as long as he could remember, disturbing the neighborhood just like he and his wife. They had been abusing and fighting each other for almost a year then, disturbing their neighborhood. Just like those dogs were driving him crazy with their barking, he and his wife had been driving his neighbors crazy with their maddeningly persistent domestic violence. His only son was mostly affected. Mr Matthew never forgot the look on his son's face the first day he had a fight with his wife. 

That day, his wife returned from work and fired him with a question that changed their happy lives. "Are you cheating on me with our nanny, Mr. Matthew?"

She had barely asked the question when his phone rang. He answerered the phone instead of the question. Talk of the devil! It was their nanny calling to inform him that she had told his wife that he kissed and made love to her. 

"What?" He bellowed. He could never understand women one bit. One minute, he was seduced by his nanny and got his lips smooched, before he stopped himself from doing something stupid, the other minute, he was being blackmailed by this same nanny. Now, she had told his wife a lie. All for what? To destroy his happy home because he couldn't do her sexual bidding? That was despicable. 

"Just in case you are now thinking about firing me, don't worry honey. I have done you the favour. I have fired you. I have quitted working for you and I have moved out of your house in the morning," said the nanny on the other end of the line. 

Mr. Matthew brought down the phone from his ear and killed the line. A mixture of guilt and shame surged through his body and shook him to the core. He moved close to his wife and stretched his arms to hold hers. But she stepped back in time, letting his hands drop in the space between them. 

"Don't touch me, you philanderer!"

Something snapped within Mr Matthew. "Don't you ever call me that, or—"

"Or what?" she interrupted, cutting short his threat. "Of all the women in this neighborhood, the only person you could sleep with was your child's nanny! You are a shameless womanizer"

That last statement hit his nerve. "What did you just call me?" He growled deeply in his throat like those dogs outside Junic lodge and landed two sound slaps across her cheeks. 

Mrs Matthew was not the type to be cowed by a slap. She grabbed plates and any other object her hands could reach and threw them at her husband, barking like those dogs outside. He ducked the weapons his wife threw at him and bolted to the parlour, leaving her in their kitchen. Behind the closed door, plates breaking and glass cups chattering filled the air. The horror in his four year old son almost killed Mr Matthew. 

However, their fights continued any day his wife caught him near any girl. She never cared about what he was discussing with the person. Gradually, his once happy home became a battlefield. He stopped longing to come back home after his stressful day at workplace because he feared he might be stressed emotionally by his wife. 

Similarly, Mrs Matthew stopped longing to see her husband around her because he represented everything she hated in an unfaithful husband. She felt stressed emotionally by him. Their son stopped getting his parents' love, care and attention. They both seemed to be shouting at him to relive their anger. You could imagine how crazy their neighbours could feel by their incessant growling and barking at each other. They caused noise pollution! 

So, as suddenly as he realized their folly through those dogs growling and barking, he made up his mind to find a lasting solution to their madness. Already, he had come back home that afternoon to fight his wife who hadn't prepared his meal for two days. He changed his mind. He would find a way to bring back peace. He knew where the problem lay. He would solve it. He targeted using his son's birthday to rekindle the fire of passion they'd lost. He would celebrate his son's birthday. He reasoned that could be the only thing that would make them talk more often as they would prepare for it together. 

He jumped when he heard his wife's car driving into their compound. By that time, the dogs had stopped barking. 

Mrs Matthew was not surprised to see her husband's car parked in the garage. She prepared herself to fire back tirade if he dared give her one. She took a very deep breath before opening the door and walking inside. 

"Welcome," said Mr Matthew, drinking his liquor and staring at his novel as if he was reading it. 

What? Why is he welcoming her? Was he not the one that sent her a text message, telling her to prepare for war since she had decided not to be cooking his meal? Why was he calm and collected today? She was genuinely confused. She decided not to be the one to start up the fight. She simply replied with a simple word her throat could force out, "Thank you."

Mr Matthew nodded. "Our son will be five years old a week today. Let us celebrate it. Let us show him love."

The woman forced a nod. She didn't understand her husband anymore. He had never been this calm for so long a time. Yes, their son needed more than their love. And this birthday party would enable him see that he was loved and cared for. They might have lacked some skills to show it, but they loved their son to bits. 

While Mrs Matthew contacted the caterer to bake their son's birthday cake and a cook to make assorted food, Mr Matthew contacted a photographer that would cover the whole event. He also handled the drinks and called a DJ. He invited his friends, just like his wife did. To him, this wasn't just a birthday celebration, it was a romantic and happy reunion between him and his wife. 

When the celebration was over, he drew his wife close. For the first time, she didn't resist. 

"I'm sorry darling, but I didn't cheat on you. She seduced me and kissed me. I stopped myself from doing something I would regret later."

Mrs Matthew took a big step backward. Her heart was beating fast, she thought it was going to burst. "My God! Why didn't you tell me since? Do you know how emotionally you have stressed me?"

Before she could blink down the tears that gathered in her eyes, her husband had spread his arms sideways. She stepped into his arms, melted in the surge of passion that swept through them, listened to the staccato beats of his heart, felt herself lifted, treasured and loved.