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“There is one other thing, Emma,” he said.
Emma sighed, but tried to do it quietly.
“Okay,” she said.
He thought about his words before he spoke.
“The survivor benefits. The benefits for you, as my wife,” he said. “If you get married again someday, you’ll lose them.”
Emma stopped peeling the carrots for a second.
“I don’t really see the relevance of that, Jack,” she said without turning around.
“It’s something to think about,” he said.
The very thought made him feel like he was swallowing a fork, but some things needed to be said.
“Emma, I’m not going to tell you to do anything that’s not in your nature,” he said.
“Good,” she said.
“But if you meet somebody, maybe you might wait until Becca’s on her own before you actually got married again,” he got out.
Saying it put pictures in his head that made him want to punch himself in the face. He grabbed his glass and sucked up a chunk of ice and started chomping it. Emma turned around and looked at him, one hand on her hip.
“Meet somebody?” she asked. “Meet who?”
“How do I know?” he snapped. “Some thieving bastard I can’t stand already.”
Emma glared at him and he waited for poisoned darts to fly out of her eyeballs and puncture his neck.
“We’re about to have our first fight,” Emma said.
“No, we’re not. We’re not like other people, Emma, we don’t have time to fight,” he said. “So you tell me what’s on your mind, I’ll tell you you’re wrong and we’ll go straight to the make-up sex.”
“No, we’ll go ahead and fight, because you don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
“I’m a realist, Emma,” he said.
“No, Jack, you’re a moron,” she snapped.
“Why is that, Emma?” he asked her. “I’m just saying that one day you may find someone.”
“I have someone,” she said, slapping a carrot down onto the cutting board. “I have you.”
“You have me now,” he countered. “But you’re a young woman. Eventually you’ll need someone.”
“No, I won’t, Jack,” she said.
“Be realistic, Emma,” he said. “How can you say that?”
Emma turned around again.
“Because I never have. I’ve never needed anyone else,” she said. “You don’t get it, Jack. I’m a loner. I’m fine being alone. I won’t need someone, I’ll need you. Nobody else can fix that.”
She turned back to the counter and started cutting the carrots into chunks.
“What about having someone to love, Emma?” he asked her and the words tasted like old socks.
Emma sighed and turned around again.
“Jack, if I couldn’t love anyone else before you loved me, why on earth would you think I could love someone after?”
Jack got up and stalked past her to the fridge to get more tea.
“You don’t have to love him as much,” he snapped. “I’m just saying that it’s in your nature to love someone.”
“And I will,” she said. “I’ll love you.”
Jack put the tea back into the fridge and closed the door a little harder than he meant to.
“I’ll be dead, Emma,” he said.
She spun around on him, holding up the last carrot.
“So you won’t be home for dinner. You’ll still be my husband,” she said. “The only difference between now and then is that I won’t have to explain things to you so much.”
Copyright © Dawn Lee McKenna
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See You by Dawn Lee McKenna
You will laugh loudly.
You will cry ugly.
You’ll find it hard to forget
Jack and Emma.