Conversations with Other Women - Floating in a Sea of Lies
Title: Floating in a Sea of Lies
Disclaimer: Conversations with Other Women and characters are the property of Gabrielle Zevin (I assume), I am merely using them for the purposes of entertainment.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Woman / Man
Word Count: 648
Summary: "It's quite easy to lie once you get started."
It was years since she’d first begun lying to him. At first it was so small and simple, telling him she was fine when she really wasn’t. Every woman did that. (Didn’t they?) Gradually that grew - along with her level of frustration - until she would find herself lying to him without even thinking about it. It was so easy, so simple. Eventually it reached the stage in which she was unaware who she was trying to protect with each lie.
Was she lying so he didn’t worry, or was she lying to make life easier for herself?
Either way it had become too easy for her over the years. So that when he suggested she’d been pregnant when she left, as alarm bells sounded in her brain, she simply said no. She wondered if he was just guessing, she wondered why it was on his mind at all, but she shut it down before it became more than an idea. Maybe - to some extent - it wasn’t a lie and that’s why it was easy. Her daughter was not his child. She had grown up calling another man ‘Dad’. She would know him as her mother’s ex-husband, if they were to ever meet, and nothing more.
But she knew.
And Jeffrey knew.
Telling him the truth, after so many years, would just complicate matters. Maybe some part of her was just being selfish, not wanting him to know that they shared this beautiful human being. Particularly now, now that she knew he was too invested in some crackpot concept of them reuniting. If she told him then he’d know, he’d always know, that something remained between them. Their daughter remained between them.
Except, no, she wasn’t their daughter. She was her daughter. This other woman, a mother, birthed the child not the love struck girl that married the first boy who swept her off her feet.
Oh and did he ever sweep her off her feet.
She pushed the thought aside as she walked steadily through Heathrow airport, brushing her fingers beneath her eyes to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Returning home made it easier, in a way. She felt more secure, more confident, in her choices knowing there were whole oceans between them. It was very unlikely she would see him again. It had been a fluke that she had been invited to the wedding in the first place. A completely random event that led to two people meeting after so many years without a single word passed between them.
“Mum!”
In an instant she was very alert, her eyes scanning the airport until she saw Jeffrey and smiled. The girls were running towards her and she held out her arms to them, her eyes never wavering from the eldest. Her own daughter (their daughter) racing towards her with that playful grin she’d seen hours earlier. For a moment she wondered if she’d done the wrong thing, if she should have said yes and told him all about their amazing child.
It was a fleeting moment.
“Aren’t you all supposed to be in school?” she cried out as the girls threw their arms around her.
“Dad said we could come,” her daughter responded, that familiar smile growing. “We missed you.”
“I missed you too,” she told them sincerely, glancing up at Jeffrey as he began to approach them. “And I am so tired... do you know what I think? I think we should get huge buckets of ice cream and just watch movies for the rest of the day. No school. No work. Just ice cream and movies.” Her suggestion, as expected, was met with squeals and cheers.
The love struck girl still lingered, playful as always, but the mother had returned. She buried the heart ache, the frustration, and the confusion deep inside her. All that mattered was that she was home with her family.
Disclaimer: Conversations with Other Women and characters are the property of Gabrielle Zevin (I assume), I am merely using them for the purposes of entertainment.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Woman / Man
Word Count: 648
Summary: "It's quite easy to lie once you get started."
It was years since she’d first begun lying to him. At first it was so small and simple, telling him she was fine when she really wasn’t. Every woman did that. (Didn’t they?) Gradually that grew - along with her level of frustration - until she would find herself lying to him without even thinking about it. It was so easy, so simple. Eventually it reached the stage in which she was unaware who she was trying to protect with each lie.
Was she lying so he didn’t worry, or was she lying to make life easier for herself?
Either way it had become too easy for her over the years. So that when he suggested she’d been pregnant when she left, as alarm bells sounded in her brain, she simply said no. She wondered if he was just guessing, she wondered why it was on his mind at all, but she shut it down before it became more than an idea. Maybe - to some extent - it wasn’t a lie and that’s why it was easy. Her daughter was not his child. She had grown up calling another man ‘Dad’. She would know him as her mother’s ex-husband, if they were to ever meet, and nothing more.
But she knew.
And Jeffrey knew.
Telling him the truth, after so many years, would just complicate matters. Maybe some part of her was just being selfish, not wanting him to know that they shared this beautiful human being. Particularly now, now that she knew he was too invested in some crackpot concept of them reuniting. If she told him then he’d know, he’d always know, that something remained between them. Their daughter remained between them.
Except, no, she wasn’t their daughter. She was her daughter. This other woman, a mother, birthed the child not the love struck girl that married the first boy who swept her off her feet.
Oh and did he ever sweep her off her feet.
She pushed the thought aside as she walked steadily through Heathrow airport, brushing her fingers beneath her eyes to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Returning home made it easier, in a way. She felt more secure, more confident, in her choices knowing there were whole oceans between them. It was very unlikely she would see him again. It had been a fluke that she had been invited to the wedding in the first place. A completely random event that led to two people meeting after so many years without a single word passed between them.
“Mum!”
In an instant she was very alert, her eyes scanning the airport until she saw Jeffrey and smiled. The girls were running towards her and she held out her arms to them, her eyes never wavering from the eldest. Her own daughter (their daughter) racing towards her with that playful grin she’d seen hours earlier. For a moment she wondered if she’d done the wrong thing, if she should have said yes and told him all about their amazing child.
It was a fleeting moment.
“Aren’t you all supposed to be in school?” she cried out as the girls threw their arms around her.
“Dad said we could come,” her daughter responded, that familiar smile growing. “We missed you.”
“I missed you too,” she told them sincerely, glancing up at Jeffrey as he began to approach them. “And I am so tired... do you know what I think? I think we should get huge buckets of ice cream and just watch movies for the rest of the day. No school. No work. Just ice cream and movies.” Her suggestion, as expected, was met with squeals and cheers.
The love struck girl still lingered, playful as always, but the mother had returned. She buried the heart ache, the frustration, and the confusion deep inside her. All that mattered was that she was home with her family.