Page 45 of Mailroom Delight
It was her. It was always going to be her.
I may not have known her for long, but she’d changed me, and that meant she had me. All of me.
“Hey… I’m really sorry to come to your home completely unannounced and uninvited –”
“No, it’s okay. You’re invited.” She cut in.
“I had to see you. You weren’t at work today and I know last night was crazy I just…just had to see you.” I didn’t know what to say that didn’t sound like I’d been going insane from wanting her to be mine. “Can I come in?”
She nodded and pushed the door open wider so I could go in.
She looked uneasy as I walked in and a little reserved.
I followed her into her living room where I was greeted with a portrait of a happy couple on their wedding day.
I assumed it was a relative I saw in the picture, but then I froze as I realized that the woman was Paige.
She saw me looking at the picture and she brought her hands together when I turned my focus to her.
“Is that you?” I asked for confirmation.
She nodded slowly.
“You’re married?” I asked unable to hide the fear in my voice, and I cursed myself now for not getting personal sooner and checking her out.
My eyes zoned down to her hands, looking for a wedding band but I couldn’t see one. Her fingers were bare of any jewelry.
“I…was.” She answered looking straight at me with a sadness in her eyes that made me want to hold her and soothe away anything that could make her sad.
“Was?What…happened?”
Her lips parted and I waited for her to speak, but no words came out.
My instincts took over at that point and I knew even before she said, “he died,” that that was what happened.
Suddenly that image she’d created in my mind of the strong challenging woman I witnessed weeks ago faded, and another realization hit me. The image she portrayed to the world was a front for the one before me.
She didn’t have to say anything, but I’d be willing to bet the version of Paige that stood before me was the old Paige. The one I wanted to find.
Silence filled the space between us, but sometimes silence spoke more than words, and it was deafening the more prolonged it became. There was a lot at play here, and it was all starting to make sense.
Weeks ago, she told me she wasn’t ready, and kept saying she couldn’t go further with me.
This was why.
“It was a brain tumor. He died three years ago.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through.” I offered.
“It was horrible.”
I nodded agreeing.
“Paige,” there was something I wanted to know. “Was I the first man you’d been with since?” It seemed absurd to ask because look at her. She had beauty about her that would make you want to stare forever.
I imagined her with her pick of men, and I was just lucky she picked me last night.
“Jason, you’re the second man I’ve ever been with in my life,” she confessed.
