COMPROMISATION

As always, I’m late by five minutes. My gal pals will be beyond mad at me like they always have been. But I should have been on the dot this time. Four of them said they have something of the essence. Cora, Brea, Alena, Xena and I’ve been friends for 10 years. Every Friday we link up at Wendy’s. None of us has passed a single Friday meeting. All of us are quite dedicated toward our friendship. No matter whatever the hell happens it’s a must to be at Wendy’s sharp at 8 p.m. on Friday.

Cora and Brea are twins. They not only look alike, their way of conducting with others is also the same. Both of them are extraordinary beautiful, friendly and easy-going. They own America’s one of the most popular cake shops ‘For Heaven’s Cakes!’. Baking cake for celebrities is their daily work.

Alena’s life was immensely fucked-up. Her parents got divorce five years ago and her younger brother Aaron died just after her parents got divorce. He was a cancer patient. Alena got depressed and started drinking and smoking. She thought it would help but it didn’t. Instead she started seeing her dead brother. It took her 2 years to sober up. It’s been 3 years she has started her real estate business. And yea, she is now an independent, successful realtor.

Among the five of us Xena has the perfect life. Perfect family, perfect life-partner. She is thinking of being unemployed. She wants to be a perfect housewife and a mother. She is actually simple but gorgeous type lady.

As I step inside of Wendy’s, my eyes start searching for them spontaneously. There they are! Cora And Brea starts waving at me as soon as they notice me. Alena and Xena are busy with their phones. I walk toward them, pull a chair and throw myself onto it.

“Why can’t you just be punctual for one time in your goddamn life!”, Alena snaps looking up from her phone.

“We saved you some cupcakes”, Cora and Brea choruses, handing over a cupcake to me.

“Hey, Xena. Aren’t you angry with me?” I ask, when I notice Xena smiling at me without any reason.

“You’ll be late by five or ten minutes for the rest of our lives. So, I’ve started accepting the fact, you know”, she says with a grin. Did something funny happened? Why is Xena grinning? Is something wrong with my face?

“Ok. So, Let’s start confessing!”

“I’ll go first!”, Xena exclaims.

“I... well...uhm. I’m pregnant, guys!”, Xena announces, hiding her face with her hands.

“Oh my god! That’s really great!”, I exclaim and wrap my arms around her.

“Cake of the baby shower is on us”, Cora and Brea choruses.

“I’ll buy the clothes then. Redheads, you guys are next. Start confessing”, Alena says motioning her hands toward Cora and Brea. 

“Guess what? We got the order of baking cake for Selena Gomez’s birthday”, they say showing all their teeth.

“And an article about me is going to be published on the New York Times. I’m going to attend a press conference next Monday”, Alena say with a proud smile. After some wow, great, amazing, it’s finally my turn.

“Sydney, tell us about your trip to Scottsdale”, Alena demands and my face turns pale.

“Well... I went to a bar near our hotel there with my brother. And... I... Uh...”

“Don’t hang back. Just say it”, Xena encourages, placing her hand on my knee.

“A random guy grabbed my ass and almost kidnapped me”, I confess, closing my eyes.

“What a jerk! Is he even a man!”

“And then my brother came and rescued me”

“Oh my god, Syd. We’re so sorry”, four of them says together.

“I’ll never go there again. Never. Ever, I would rather die than going back in there. I hate that place”, I say and mean it.

“Does Rob know about it?” the twins ask.

“Not yet. He has been busy with his work and stuff recently”, I lie. Rob hasn’t been busy recently; he has always been like this. After 2 hours chit-chat, we said goodbye to each other and went back to our houses.

Again, I’m all alone. I really hate this lonely life. It’s been one year since my marriage with Rob. But he has never taken me anywhere. Not once. He never even bothered to ask me whether I want to go somewhere or not. I feel suffocated staying alone in this damn house. I want him to pay attention to me, to take care of me, make love to me, travel with me around the world. I’m not saying that instead of working he should devote all his time to me. I just want him to make me feel special and loved. I want him to reserve some of his time for me. But he has always given his work more priority than me. He chose his work over me invariably. I want him to kiss me on my forehead when I wake up in the morning but every day when I wake up, what I see is he’s already gone. It’s like living together but still not together. Someone rings the bell, bringing me out of my thoughts. It’s Rob.

I open the door and he wrap his arms around me and presses his lips against mine's, making me surprised. It’s unexpected. He never does that. But I’m glad that he did that.

“We need to talk, Rob. I’ve tons of things to say”, I say pulling myself away from him. Today I’ll tell him everything that I’ve been feeling for last few months. I can’t keep it inside of me anymore. It’s making me sick!

“Ok. But listen to me first”, he says running his fingers through his brown hair. Then he places both of his hands on my shoulder. Oh god! Is he going to divorce me? What if he divorces me? I’m panicking.

“I know I’ve been a shitty husband. And I’m going to make it up to you today. Go and get ready. We’ve to leave”, he says making my heart flatter. Can he read my mind?

“I said go!”, he says and literally drag me to our bedroom. Gosh! I can’t believe it! What just happened! Is he serious! I think reality has brought him back to his senses. I can’t express in words how happy I am! I’ve been waiting for this very moment for a really long time. But what should I wear? He didn’t even tell me where we are going. Should I wear something sexy or something casual?

“Are you done?!”, Rob yells through the door.

“Can’t decide! What should I wear?!”, I yell back asking for his opinion.

“Wear something casual!”, he says. So, I wear a white floral lace crewneck top and a high-waisted ripped skinny jean. As I step my foot outside of our bedroom, Rob pulls me in a hug and blindfolds me.

“What the hell is this, Rob?”

“You’ll get to know, my lady”, he whispers in my ear.

After one or two decades, Rob takes my blindfold off. At last. I was feeling like a blind lady all this time but, where are we? This place looks unfamiliar. I don’t think we are in Washington.

“Hey, where are we?”, I ask.

“I got promotion and they transferred me here. They said that working from here will be much easier and will be good for me and my career. From now on, I’ll be able to give you time”, he says. His eyes are bright. He is really happy.

“That’s... that’s really amazing!”, I exclaim.

“From now we’ll live here”

“And our stuff and all that?”

“We’ll figure that out later. Now it’s just us”

“Ok but at least tell me where we are right now”

“We’re in Scottsdale!”, he exclaims and both my jaw and heart drops on the ground.

I walk away from Rob. He runs toward me and catches my arm, making me stumble backward.

“Hey. Hey, you alright?” he asks. His voice is filled with concern.

“No, I’m not. I don’t want to live here”

“Why? What’s the problem?”

“Oh, yea. How would you know what my problem is because you’re tremendously busy dealing with your problems. I even doubt my existence sometimes while staying with you”, I snap. Tears are threatening my eyes. I’ll end up choking on a sob at any moment.

“What the hell are you talking about? You don’t have anything in Washington. Then why’re making such a big deal about staying in here?”, he yells. Why is he yelling? His yelling is totally unreasonable.

“You’re right. I don’t have anything in there and that’s because of you!”

“You’re being really unreasonable right now. Why can’t you just compromise for me just for once in your goddamn life and be happy for me!”. What?

“You’re kidding, right? I compromised my career, my happiness everything for you! Even my baby! I was only 18 and got pregnant with our baby. I wanted to keep the baby but you told me to get an abortion. I didn’t utter a single word, just to keep you happy!”, I yell through my tears. He remains silent because he knows I’m right. I walk away from him again but this time he doesn’t bother to follow me.

Thankfully, I had enough money to bear the expenses for my plane ticket and the hotel. My beloved husband has sold our Washington’s apartment. My parents are out of country and I’ll never go to my friend’s place to play the role of a third wheel. There’s is only one place left. My brother’s house.

I stayed at my brother’s place but I didn’t tell him about my argument with Rob. I don’t want him to chop Rob’s head off.

It’s been one month since my argument with Rob. He didn’t bother to call or to send a single text to me. I think soon he will send divorce papers to me. There wasn’t a single night I passed without crying. All the hurtful things he said to me roams around my head all the time. I keep wondering if he was also feeling the same.

Ambrose will come home at any time. I should start making dinner for him. And suddenly someone knocks on the door. It might be Ambrose. I open the door and see my husband’s face instead of my brother’s.

“What do you want? Divorce?” I ask with a cold expression.

“Hell, no! I would never do that”.

“I doubt that. If you could say I didn’t compromise for you. You could also say that”.

“I know I messed up. I’m really sorry for what I said and did earlier. And this time I really want to make it up to you”.

“Oh, come on. You’ll never give up on your job for me!”.

“I already did”. Is he kidding me?

“What?! Why on earth would you do that!”.

“You gave up on our baby for me. A job isn’t that big of a deal”, he says making me cry. He wipes my off of my cheeks. This is the first time he has wiped my tears off. I love this man so much!