The wisp of her skirt fluttered as she disappeared around the corner with her suitcase, heading to their garage at the back of their garden, and Adrian could no longer contain his emotions. Tears started to roll down his cheeks. Where had it all gone wrong? He thought back to the day they had first met.
It had been a mutual attraction. Love at first sight. They had met in a coffee bar in the early sixties. Jenny was with her friend and there were no empty tables left, so Adrian’s mate asked if they could share the table with the two girls. Jenny’s friend Brenda readily agreed and spent the rest of the evening flirting with Adrian. But it was Jenny that Adrian had been interested in, and when Jenny had to leave, he volunteered to walk her to her bus stop. Jenny’s bus had been early and she’d had to run for it, but Adrian returned to the coffee bar and got Jenny’s telephone number from Brenda, who was by this time chatting up his mate Andy. The next day Adrian had rung Jenny up and asked her out. That was when they were both sixteen. They were married by the time they were eighteen and, having raised two children, had been together ever since.
Adrian couldn’t remember when it had first gone wrong. Maybe he had been too young, too wild when they got married. Maybe he just couldn’t resist a pretty girl. Jenny never found out about his misdemeanours of course, he always made sure of that. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, he remained the dutiful husband. Only his best mate Pete knew about his several affairs over the years. Pete was his scapegoat. Jenny didn’t like Pete, so every time he had fixed a date with a bit of skirt, he had said he was going out with Pete for a drink. He knew Jenny wouldn’t want to come. But that was years ago. He had settled down now, well almost.
Now they were both well into their forties. Both of their children were married. In her spare time Jenny was busying herself with hobbies that she had now found time to rediscover. She started going out with her workmates, playing squash or badminton, leaving Adrian to watch his favourite TV programmes in peace. That was all he wanted to do after a hard day at work. Weekends were still typical family outings. Jenny had always insisted they went out somewhere for the day on Sundays, after having spent Saturday dealing with the jobs in their house and garden. Adrian sensed that Jenny wasn’t happy, but he had no idea why not. Jenny was always striving for a more exciting life, while he had been quite content to potter around at home.
But tonight, over their Saturday night dinner, Jenny announced that she was leaving him. When he asked why, she said it was because of all his affairs. He denied it all, of course. How had she known about them?
“Anyway, where will you go?” he asked.
“I’m going to live with your mate Pete,” she replied. “He and I have been seeing each other for some time now. We have been waiting for the right time, and now the time is right.”
Adrian couldn’t believe it. Pete had grassed him up. Only yesterday he had arranged with him to cover for his planned sojourn next week with Julie, a girl from his office who had been after him for a while.
No way was he going to let this happen. He loved Jenny. He was not going to let Pete steal her from him.
Adrian went to the kitchen, took the paring knife that he had always kept sharp for Jenny from the drawer, took a pair of disposable rubber gloves from the drawer below, took another swig from the bottle of whiskey he was halfway down already, picked up his car keys and walked out to his car…
Creative writing homework:- Short story from first line prompt March 2016
Recent Comments