Turned Tables

It was ten pm and she wasn't home yet.

Andrew was absolutely sure something had gone horribly wrong. Rebecca was never late. Ever. Over the past hour, he'd found himself mentally going through every date they've ever had the two years they've been together and realised that she had never been late. And the few times when she couldn't make it, she had called at least five hours before to let him know. If anything she was always the one kept waiting. Just yesterday, they'd had a fight over him being late for their two year anniversary celebratory dinner. Rebecca had been so mad about being kept waiting which was surprising because she was usually very understanding about such matters. He had tried to explain himself but she wasn't having any of it.

"Jesus Christ, Andrew, why bother show up at all?" She'd come at him the second he stepped into their two bedroom shared apartment. He didn't realise how angry she was at first so he'd tried to make a joke.

"Uh because I live here?"

"Oh my God. Do you realise how insensitive you can be sometimes? You promised. I called you at noon and you promised to be here by 6. You promised. Do your promises mean nothing to you?" The calm with which she spoke was the "chill you to your bone marrows kind" and Andrew knew she was not in a good mood.

"Hey. I'm sorry. I really did try to leave the office before five but-" She cut him off before he had the chance to explain. "Excuses, excuses. I really can't listen to this right now. I'm going to bed."

She walked off but not in the direction he expected her to go. She went towards the guest bedroom which left him even more speechless than he already was. He knew he was wrong to have kept her waiting but he didn't expect this sort of reaction from her. He silently promised himself to make it up to her and went into their actual bedroom. That night, for the first time since they moved in together over half a year ago, he slept alone.

The morning wasn't any better. She was up before he was and she left while he was in the bathroom. Without saying goodbye. He heard the front door slam shut and started to wonder whether there was more to her anger than just him being late. She had already broken two of their rules in less than a day; the first of which was never go to bed mad and the other; never to leave without saying goodbye. Well, I'm not breaking any more rules, he thought which was why as soon as he was absolutely sure she was going to be in the office, he called. 

"Hey."

"Hi."

There was silence which meant she was still mad. That was another thing they had. Whenever one made the other angry, it was the duty of the wrongdoer to call and wait for the other to say something first. A simple 'hey' meant all wasn't forgiven. Yet.

"I'm cooking tonight. I'm working from home today."

"Okay."

Andrew was getting frustrated. She wasn't trying to make this easy for him.

"I'm sorry about last night. Let me make it up to you. Be home by 6? Please?" He added the last bit when he sensed some hesitation on her end.

"Okay."

"Okay, have a good day. I love you." He knew he sounded desperate. He hated this new mood of hers.

She hung up the phone. 

Wow, he thought. She didn't say she loved him back.

That was the last time he spoke to her and it was over twelve hours ago. He was tempted to call at lunch time but he didn't want to push his luck and give her the opportunity to cancel. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd have never thought that but he didn't know what to expect anymore. Now he wished he'd called because he was sure that being stood up would've been a lot less torturous that what he was going through right now. He tried calling but it went to voicemail, again, like the previous fifty or so times he had.

He checked the time again.

22:50.

He knew his mind was in overdrive thinking of the worst possible reasons as to why she was so late. He decided to distract himself by checking his Instagram but as soon as he pulled up the app, his resting heartbeat more than doubled.

"Oh my God." 

At this point, he was full on freaking out. The first thing on his feed was a video of an accident. And it was posted around an hour before. Watching the video clarified nothing. It was blurry and not well shot-obviously taken by someone with little experience as to how photography worked. He would know. He'd spent two years taking photography classes. He knew he was focusing on the wrong thing but it was all he could do to not go mad. Calling the police wasn't going to do him any good because it hadn't really been that long since she was supposed to be home and that was definitely not her car in the video- or so he told himself. 

He found himself praying and making promises to God. So much for being agnostic, he thought. If only his mother could see him now. 

If she comes home safe, I'd never be late for anything ever again.

I'd go to church tomorrow if you let her come back safe to me, Lord. 

He was opening the front door before his brain was done processing that he'd heard a knock.

Almost afraid to see what was on the other side, he fumbled with the lock a few times before getting it open and when he finally did, there she was. The relief he felt in that moment was almost paralyzing. He embraced her and held on as if hanging on for dear life. It wasn't until he tried to talk and heard his slightly croaked voice that he realised he'd been crying. 

Rebecca knew she was overreacting. It wasn't the first time Andrew had been late when they'd made plans. He was always late. Sometimes, twenty minutes, other times two hours. But she'd thought last night was special. It was their anniversary dinner. The last year, he was fifteen minutes late so she thought at worst, he'd have been a half hour late. She'd even started her cooking thirty minutes after she was actually supposed to. Cooking that was now wasted because he decided to put his work first; as usual. It wasn't fair of her to think like this but she was really pissed. She had planned to propose to him tonight. It wasn't like it was going to be that much of a surprise. They'd been talking about making things official a lot recently and she thought it'd be fun to be the one proposing. She'd never been one for the traditional way of doing things and besides, it could've been a fun story to tell their kids someday.

Now she wasn't so sure she wanted to be married to someone who didn't know how to be on time. 

She decided to give everything more thought after a night's rest because she really was exhausted from the less than ideal day she'd had.

When she woke up, she wasn't as angry as she was the night before but she wasn't happy either. She made a point of staying out of Andrew's way that morning and left for work without so much as a word to him. Doing that didn't particularly feel nice but she decided he was going to have to work for her forgiveness this time.

After the telephone conversation she had with Andrew at her desk, she had a slight smile on her face the rest of the morning. She had to give it to him. He was making an effort and she was beginning to enjoy making him uncomfortable.

Maybe she'd pull a stunt of her own tonight, she mused to herself.

At lunch, Rebecca thought she'd give her boyfriend a taste of his own medicine. She remembered the time Andrew had been two hours late for a weeknight date they had and how she had been so worried. It was shortly after they had moved in together and she frowned when she realised that he had only made it a habit of being late for everything after they had moved in together.

She decided there and then to not be home until it was at least 10 pm.

Was she being cruel? She asked herself later that evening. She was the only one left at work. It wasn't unusual for employees to stay after hours at her office and since she was the boss, she could do whatever she pleased. She opened up her phone and redirected all calls to voicemail. Not that she had any friends who Andrew would call to get information on her whereabouts. She had always been sort of a loner and six months in the apartment and new branch of her father's company wasn't enough time for her to have made friends.

She spent the next three hours on YouTube watching random videos. She didn't register how much time she'd spent on there until she checked her phone again and saw what the time was.

It was 22:20.

It was time to get home.

She didn't know exactly what she had been expecting Andrew's reaction but it was definitely not what she was greeted with. He looked like he'd aged ten years over the course of the day and he was crying! They both rarely ever cried and right then and there, she knew she had gone too far.

"I'm sorry, I-," They both started at the same time.

"I'd never make you wait again, I promise," Andrew was saying. "I'm so sorry."

Rebecca just kept nodding at everything he was saying as he held her and guided her to the single sofa in their living room. It was as if he was afraid if he let her go, she'd disappear again. She wondered what he'd think of her when she told him that this had been intentional. She was going to tell him. If she didn't, she knew it would eat her alive. The guilt she felt now was already debilitating enough and she wondered how she could have ever thought scaring him like this was a good idea.

Hopefully, he'd forgive her and they would be fine. She glanced at the table, saw his cellphone and realised why Andrew was so shaken. Of course. She herself had seen the wreckage on the road on her way home and had been redirected by the authorities to another route. She should have known Andrew would have thought the worst. She had forgotten how overactive his imagination could be sometimes. It was one of the reasons why she loved him.

"I'm sorry," she said. It was all she could manage to say in the moment. She would tell him everything. Soon, she promised herself. She just had to make sure that he was okay first. That they were okay.

Great, she thought. Now I have some making up to do myself.