and I Believe. Jodie Richard-Bohman

though I was very irritated by the way she was controlling the situation, I still answered her. “Of course I do. He’s my best friend.”

      “No, Kate, I mean do you love Aaron, not as a friend but as a husband?”

      “I just told you I did.”

      “You’re not getting it, Kate,” Aaron then jumped in. “I know you love me, but do you LOVE me?”

      “You know I do.”

      And just like that, he came up to me, cupped my face with his hands and gently kissed me on the lips.

      My instant reaction was to push him away and wipe his kiss from my lips, “What are you doing?!”

      “See Kate, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You act disgusted with me every time I touch you, and it has been this way for years.”

      “I’m not disgusted because you kissed me; I’m disgusted because you kissed another woman.”

      He shook his head in frustration. “Whatever. You can keep lying to yourself, but I’m not doing it anymore.”

      “Aaron!” Joyce snapped at him.

      “I’m sorry Mom, but temptation is out there everywhere, and it finds you even when you aren’t looking for it. How can I avoid it when I have a wife who has to “try” to want to be with me?”

      “Aaron Michael!” Her tone was even sharper than before.

      “Joyce, please just stop it!” I then turned to Aaron. “Fine Aaron, if a divorce is what you want, then you can have it!”

      “Kate, Aaron!” Her blue eyes were wide and racing back and forth from Aaron to me. “Please quit this nonsense. You two need to think of your daughters.”

      “I’m sorry Joyce, but I’m not going to stand here and be blamed for him “almost” cheating on me. Maybe I did let our marriage get too comfortable, but either way, I never turned to somebody else because of it.”

      By this point, Aaron was crying and Joyce looked blindsided by what was happening. I couldn’t take it anymore. This time it was me who left, slamming the door behind me.

      Chapter 7

      Driving around crying with nowhere to go, my thoughts went back to the night when this all supposedly began.

      “This meal is sooo delicious!” I said, licking spaghetti sauce off of my fingers.

      It was the night before Thanksgiving, and Jenna and Mia were spending the night at my sister Kristie’s house. Aaron surprised me with a candlelight dinner for two. The table was full of salad, garlic bread and delicious lasagna.

      “Thank-you. I was hoping you’d like it.”

      “Like it? I love it!”

      Even though I was full, I still crammed another spoonful of lasagna in my mouth.

      “So how’s work been?” I asked.

      “If it wasn’t for wills, deaths and divorces, I don’t know what we would work on all day long. Sometimes I wish had gone into criminal law. Solving crimes and defending the bad would be more exciting, wouldn’t you think?”

      “I would think so. Maybe you’ll get lucky and have a wife, who just found out that her husband cheated on her, kill him and hide his body, and you’ll have to prove her innocence.”

      “Now that would be cool.”

      Later, after we finished the dishes, I was lying on the couch with my feet propped up on a pillow, savoring the peace and quiet. Jenna was nine and Mia was two and a half, and I loved them both dearly, but every once in a while, it is nice to have a little alone time.

      “You look very sexy tonight,” Aaron whispered in my ear as he nuzzled it.

      For some reason this irritated me. Between the girls, work and the house, I was just plain exhausted and the last thing on my mind was sex.

      “Aaron, I’m not in the mood.”

      His smiled disappeared.

      “Do you even want to be with me anymore? Every time I try to touch you, you act as if I have a disease or something.”

      “I do not,” I replied defensively.

      “Kate, we haven’t had sex in over six months! You always say ‘it’s because the girls are around’, but they’re gone right now and you still don’t want to do it.”

      “Why does it always have to be about sex with you? For Pete’s sake Aaron, it’s all you ever complain about.”

      “Excuse me for wanting to be intimate with my wife every now and then.”

      “What are you talking about? We’re intimate all of the time.”

      His eyes widened as if I had just told a full blown lie.

      “How can you say that? It’s been May since we last had sex.”

       Oh my gosh, here he goes again.

      “Why do you do that?” he asked as if he read my thought.

      “Do what?”

      “Roll your eyes at me and treat me like I’m a pervert because I want to be with you.”

      The last thing I wanted to do was argue with him, so I softened my tone. “Aaron, let’s not fight. I’m just tired, okay?”

      “Fine.”

      Sitting back down in the recliner, he crossed his arms as he stared at the television.

      “Jeff and Cory are at Creekside. Do you want to have a drink with them?”

      It had been an hour of complete silence, and Aaron was the first to break the ice.

      “No, not really.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because I don’t want to.”

      “That’s no surprise,” he mumbled under his breath.

      “What did you say?”

      “Nothing.”

      “If you want to go uptown so bad, then go,” I told him sarcastically.

      He continued to stare ahead at the television. A few minutes later, he got up from his chair and left the room.

       Is that the garage door going up?

      I looked out the big picture window in the living room just in time to see Aaron driving away.

       What in the heck just happened?! Did he seriously just leave?

      Three hours later, Aaron had still not returned. Putting on a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants, I climbed into our big empty bed. It took me awhile to fall asleep, but when I finally did, I was awakened to Aaron coming into our bedroom. Acting as if I was asleep, I didn’t say a word or move a muscle when he took off his shirt and pants then slid up behind me in bed.

      “Kate, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. It’s just that I love you so much and it feels like you don’t love me anymore,” he said, caressing my leg.

      I let out a sigh, pushed his hand away and moved as far to the edge of the bed as I could get.

      He rolled over on his back and mumbled something I couldn’t understand under his breath. He then grabbed his pillow and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

      This scared me. He and I rarely ever fought, well, except for when he would get on this “no sex” thing, but he never ever raised his voice or slammed anything. Either way, I wasn’t going to go downstairs and apologize to him. I did nothing wrong.

      Even