Our son kept trying to push the cake closer to his face.
Daniel’s mother was laughing.
For a moment, I remember thinking:
This is my life.
Twenty-two years of marriage.
Two children.
A husband I still loved.Try Marriage Counseling
A family I knew completely.
I felt lucky.
Then Mark made the joke.
I had told the server I didn’t want dessert.
Daniel knew better.
He ordered one slice of chocolate cake with two forks because it was my favorite thing on the menu.
Mark saw it.
He grinned.
“Anything for the second wife.”
Several people laughed automatically.
Daniel did too.
I didn’t.
I don’t know why that night was different.
Maybe because I was fifty-three years old and suddenly tired of pretending something made sense when it didn’t.
Maybe it was the look on Daniel’s mother’s face.
Maybe it was that strange tightness around Daniel’s eyes again.
