15 Jun A Short Story: Trust

*This story is entirely a work of fiction.*

I walked into my apartment one evening, all of the lights were turned off and as I entered the living room, the lights suddenly flicked on and I saw her sitting there on the couch, wearing a tight-fitting yoga outfit with her hair up in a flustered fashion.

I was surprised to see her and said, “Hey… you’re here? How did you get in here?”

She had a serious look on her face and then said, “Uh… I have a key… you gave me a key. And that’s the first thing you’re going to say to me?”

I tried to alleviate the angst within the atmosphere of the room and said to her, “Shorty, why is you in here moving your legs like you’re Sharon Stone in the Basic Instinct movie like that? That’s not a good sign.”

I could see that she was trying her hardest not to laugh and then she said, “Don’t try and change the subject,” she slightly laughed and the continued to speak, “And the fucked up part is I know exactly what you are talking about and I definitely was moving my legs like that… but, call me basic one more time and see what happens to you.”

I responded quickly, “Shorty, I wasn’t even saying you were basic like that…”

She closed her eyes, took a deep, angry breath and then said, “So… where exactly have you been these past few days?”

I looked around the room nervously and then calmly said, “What do you mean? I’ve been here, I’ve just been busy writing as much as I can.”

She then disgruntledly said, “Oh really? Then why do you have your travel suitcase with you like that?”

I looked down at my suitcase, then looked over at her and said, “Oh… I was just, uh, I was just going grocery shopping.”

She quickly responded with a subtly offended tone of voice, “Avi… come on. You were going grocery shopping? Do I look stupid to you? And that’s funny because I’ve stopped in here the past few days and I haven’t seen you here.”

I responded with a slight admission of guilt, “Shorty, you know how I’ve been writing relentlessly to make my catalog of work as expansive as possible before I hire a PR and Marketing firm to advertise my art… shorty, you know me, you know how I have a plan.”

She intensely rolled her eyes and then said, “Oh right. Who is the girl that you’ve been spending these past few days with?”

I walked over to the couch, took a seat next to her and then charismatically said, “Shorty, you know how I’m over here loving you with every other breath, you already know that.”

She hesitantly smiled and then said, “You’re even a bigger piece of shit than I initially had thought… and you’re supposed to love me with every breath, not every other breath.”

I pretended to be offended and then said, “So I can’t even breath now? Shorty, how you gonna just want all my breaths like that, can I breath? Shit.”

She then slapped me in the face as hard as she could and said, “You deserved that…” and then continued speaking with a remorseful tone of voice, “And I really like your plan…”

I moved in closer and started to whisper in her ear (which she really likes when I do that), “You know how I’d never consistently cheat on you like that… sometimes I just need to wander.”

She immediately stood up and started walking towards the door and said, “Consistently cheat? What does that mean…”

I quickly walked over to the door to try and stop her from leaving and then said, “Shorty, you know how sometimes I’m not very good with my words, you know how sometimes I’m just word exhausted, what I was trying to say is that I ain’t over here cheating on you… I’m over here working on art.”

She then softly said, “Are you lying to me?”

And then I affirmatively said, “No.”

Then she sweetly said, “Promise?”

And then I affirmatively said, “Yes.”

She gave me a suspicious look and then said, “So, why would you lie about where you’ve been?”

I smiled, pointed to my travel suitcase and then said, “Open it.”

She then reluctantly opened my suitcase and saw that there was nothing in there other than a jewelry box. She opened the jewelry box and saw that there was a diamond wedding ring in there and then I immediately said, “So…. yes or no?”

She tearfully smiled and said, “You aren’t even going to get on your knee for me?”