SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST THING. II

 

Simon woke up to this irritating noise ringing in his head. The noise wouldn't go away. He slowly realised it was his mobile phone's alarm. He turned it off wondering where he was. He had such a headache and his eyes were struggling to get used to the light. His mobile phone started ringing which he instinctively picked up. It was his wife Betty in total hysterics asking where he was and how she had been trying to reach him all night but he didn't pick up his phone. Hearing Betty's voice on the other end of the phone cleared his headache. Everything came back to him and in his panic he cut the phone. He got dressed quickly and let himself out of the house. 

How did he let things get out of hand? Simon thought as he sat in his car parked on a side street. He never meant for this to happen. He had only planned to have a couple of drinks last night with some of his colleagues before heading home. Friday evenings was his and Betty's night normally but ever since their fight the night his car broke down and they stopped talking to each other, he had started hanging out with his colleagues for after work drinks on Friday. It was better than going home to a tense atmosphere. He hated fighting with Betty and would usually try to make peace regardless of who was in the wrong. In this instant he had decided for once he was going to hold his own. What really hurt him most was the fact that she had not asked him if he was okay or hungry or what had happened to him. She didn't even let him sit down before having a go at him for coming home late. He had been tired and hungry when he got home that night, and really wasn’t in the mood to talk or answer her tirade of questions. The next morning when Betty muffled a good morning to him, he muffled an answer back and was expecting her to apologise but she carried on as if everything was okay. That really irritated him. If he had upset her he would have tried to talk about it with her and make her see his point of view. When he came home that night, she had muffled some sort of welcome to him but he totally ignored her. She did try to make conversation with him but they were forced and he really didn’t feel like talking to her. This had carried on for over three weeks and even though he missed her a lot, he wasn’t going to be the one to make the first move.

Yesterday evening he had gone for drinks with his colleagues Jay, Richard, Jane and Amy. Thinking back now, he should have gone home once Amy decided to come along. He had been getting a lot closer to Amy ever since the fight happened. She had a way of making him laugh and if he was being honest, he was flattered by the attention she gave him because she was 5 years younger than him. He remembered drinking a lot more than he should have and offering to take her home. When they got to hers, he decided to walk her to her door and then she kissed him. He should have run then, but instead he accepted her invitation for a night cap. One thing led to another and they ended up in bed.

Sitting in his car, he hated himself. He had never cheated on Betty. A lot of thoughts were going through his head. Should he tell her? How will he tell her? Will she forgive him? How will he face Amy at work on Monday? How will he live with himself after this?

The quote “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride” is so apt. Research done on the causes of divorce have found that a lot of the issues were very trivial and could have been resolved if the parties involved had kept lines of communication open. A healthy relationship cannot exist if either party won’t discuss how they feel or talk about their issues.

Culled from V. Tiger