I hated weddings. The roof, the floor, everything was white except the gentlemen who were in black just like the hearts of many women. The bride and the groom uttering vows that lasts for a week more than the New Year’s resolution. The forgotten aunt who shows up at the wedding just to show how great her life had turned out to be. Where was the food? I searched with my hunting eyes everywhere. The one good thing about weddings are supposed to be the wine and the food. But the food was nowhere to be found. I wondered why I was even there. I took a chair which was also covered with a white cloth strapped with a pink ribbon. Then I realized why I was there.
“Trisha, we must talk,” I said to my wife wanting her to exchange a few words with me after all her busy at work bullshit.
“About what Nathan?” She asked pretending to have no idea of what was going on.
“We are in our bed for the past one hour and you haven’t even looked at me even for once,” I said, assuming that she’d understand.
“Yes, but can’t you see that I’m busy? I have to file the reports for this new case,” she said giving a look at me and getting back to where her eyes were, glued to her laptop screen.
“I don’t think it’s that Trisha,” I said trying to intimidate her.
“What do you mean Nathan?” She asked. I still wasn’t sure if she has understood what I was trying to say so I had to blurt out.
“I think it’s beyond that. I think you are not busy with something else but with someone else,” I said getting to the point.
“How dare you Nathan? What are you talking?” she said taking her glasses off and looking straight at me with her killer eyes.
“The last few times I called you, you said you were busy at the office when I saw you right in front of my eyes sitting across a man at the café, are you going to deny that?” I said, making a strong statement.
“Is that what it is all about? That was a client, he was a wealthy one. He asked me to keep the case confidential. This is my job Nathan, I’m a private lawyer. I have a few professional ethics that I must abide,” she said convincingly.
“But we never talk, we used to be so close you know, I miss that, what had happened to us?” I asked her.
“I don’t know Nathan. I’m trying, I’m trying hard every day but I’m not sure how to make it work anymore,” she said.
“So is that it? We walk off? After five years of being together?” I asked her.
“No, I think it’s only because we have been so immersed into our own lives in the world that we have forgotten about our own world, the one where there were only the two of us,” she said.
“We shouldn’t give up. I think we should give it another go. Shall we plan on making a trip? Away from work, away from all these,” I asked her with a bit of love tingling my heart.
“I would love that. But before that why don’t you come to the wedding of Cousin Patty with me? All my friends will be there, it’ll be fun,” she suggested.
I have no wish to go that wedding with her. That’s why I declined her offer the very first time she asked me, a few weeks back. But I thought that this could be an opportunity for us to find ourselves and reunite as a couple once again. So I agreed. Almost a week later, here I am, sitting on a chair with everyone around me but my wife.
She was sitting in the front, with her people. Her family and friends keeping her busy again. I didn’t want to disturb her but yet, I wanted to spend some time with her. That’s when I spotted a man sitting next to Trish. He wasn’t tall like me, he was a bit short for a man of his age. He had a shiny black hair, the UK style. He was wearing a great tux, even better than the one the groom was wearing. Actually it was way better than what the groom was wearing. I ignored him in the beginning but even when all the other friends had left, he stayed there, sitting next to my wife. His eyes were staring right at her, he didn’t take his eyes off of her even for once in the past hour. Who is this guy? I started to wonder.
I couldn’t hold it any longer. I wanted to go there and take my wife back from him. I walked there with a drink in my hand which had finally been served.
“Trish,” I called her standing in front of them. “Why don’t we uh, go eat something? The dinner’s being served,” I said as I caught her attention. She looked at me like she was shocked to see me there. She wasn’t even smiling.
“Nathan, this is Eddie, I invited him to the wedding,” she said as Eddie lifted his right hand and smiled and I shook his hand for some reason. “We have been long time friends, since childhood, we have a lot to talk about, why don’t you go eat the dinner? I’ll be right behind you,” she said.
As I started walking, I noticed him looking at her exactly the same way as he did and she didn’t even introduce me. I felt like I was being betrayed. The doubts that I had crept back to me like bees swarming the hive. Is this the guy she has been seeing all these time? He certainly seemed like the one I saw through the window of the café. Or am I overthinking? I didn’t know. But I certainly didn’t want him to talk to my wife like that.
“Hey, can you tell me who that guy is, sitting with my wife?” I asked a woman who was walking by pointing at my wife.
“He is Edward, Trish and he are best friends, they are good friends since childhood, a very nice guy. But why are you asking?” said the woman.
“Nothing, I just confused him with someone else, thank you,” I said to the woman cuing her to make a leave.
I couldn’t talk normally with my wife the entire night. I couldn’t take the image of them two out of my head. Is she cheating me with him? I don’t know. But he certainly might. They went to dinner together, now they are sharing drinks together. They were holding hands even when they are walking. I’m sure my wife is an attractive woman but is she attracted to him? The way they look at each other can mean only one thing. I couldn’t hold it any longer.
I went straight up to them, I pulled him up by his neatly worn collar and stared right at his eyes and asked, “Who are you pal? What business you have with my wife?”
“Oh, I don’t understand, what happened?” he asked.
“Are you in love with her?” I asked him straight to his face.
“No Sir, I am not, I don’t understand what you are talking about,” he said looking at her again.
“Look my face and talk you bastard, I saw you two together, what is that about?” I said in a louder voice with people staring at us from different angles.
“Nathan! Stop it,” said Trisha as she pulled me hands away from him.
“Is he the one Trisha?” I asked looking at my wife.
“No, there is no one Nathan. Eddie can’t see, he is blind. We used to be friends when we were children. We just met that day in the café, he was just in town for the past month and I invited him to the wedding,” said Trisha.
She lied to me because she knew exactly that this would happen. I don’t blame her. I knew that my marriage was over. I wasn’t the person I was anymore. I turned into something bad, something wrong. I needed to stay away from her, from everything. I was not in my right mind. Is it just me or am I just a product of the world that we live in? I wondered.
The Typist 
Leave a comment