episode 3 – settlingMarriage brings to light new challenges, and there is a need to adapt or ignore them for success.
Marriage brings to light new challenges, and there is a need to adapt or ignore them for success.
A Return to Reality
The apartment door opens, and Alan steps inside, smiling as he sets a bag of groceries on the counter. He doesn’t notice the photo in Reyna’s hand. Or if he does, he doesn’t care.
“You okay?” he asks, walking toward her calmly. “You look a little pale.”
Reyna returns the photo to the shelf. Was her ordinary life any better? Her hand shakes, but her voice doesn’t. “I’m fine.”
Alan kisses her cheek. “Good. I told you this would feel like home.”
“Yes, you’re right,” she says, her voice flat. “It looks like an extension of where I used to be.” But as the words leave her lips, she wonders whether that’s a comfort or a curse.
Alan smirks, leaning casually against the counter, his tone light but deliberate. “I’d say your life now is a significant improvement. A home with a husband to care for.”
Reyna nods slowly, but her hands hesitate over the bag. “Perhaps. You never mentioned that you were friends with my…” faltering as visceral flashbacks intrude her characterization, “…roommate.”
Her words fall short of an accusation in light of what may be her own inappropriate actions from his perspective.
“You never asked,” Alan replies before deflecting the subject. “What you have isn’t a bad deal, as long as you don’t overthink things.”
She could ask more. She imagines more than she wants to know at present. So, with a defeatist smile, she opens one of the grocery bags.
“Overthinking ruins everything, doesn’t it?” she says, echoing his tone. “I’m not perfect. No one is. You proposed after picking me up from an asylum.
“It’s too early in our marriage to begin nitpicking,” she says softly, her voice trailing. “I can be happy here.
“I have nowhere else to go,” she utters, starkly realizing that she can’t return to her past.”
Alan stands in the distance, staring out the window as Reyna puts away the remaining groceries. Through the slightly open door in the distance, he catches a glimpse of Matilyn gesturing while showing a woman around the apartment.
Reyna looks up to see her husband’s preoccupation before looking down. After pressing her eyes together for a moment, Reyna begins preparing dinner, determined to accept her “better life.”
An Ordinary Routine
No longer a waitress, Reyna adjusts to married life, learning to tolerate Alan’s periodic “therapy sessions.” From her spot on the sofa, she watches him button his jacket, kiss her cheek, and head out the door. She sees him crossing the street through the apartment window and disappearing into the building opposite theirs.
Though unsettling, Reyna rationalizes it. Alan had been upfront about Matilyn’s role as his therapist. The sessions, she tells herself, are necessary for his progress… maybe even for their marital progress. Yet, whenever she watches him leave, an unease settles over her.
He often returns with a heightened appetite for intimacy, awakening her as if it were a condition of his therapy. Reyna yields, her movements mechanical, her mind elsewhere. When he drifts off to sleep without a word, Reyna lies on her back with her eyes fixed on the ceiling; then toward the large window, less sure of herself and his intentions.
Through the window, Alan sometimes gazes at Matilyn’s room before turning back to smile at Reyna. “Patient confidentiality doesn’t allow me to elaborate, but her techniques have helped me to grow into the man you married,” he says once, casually, as he stands in front of a mirror, adjusting his shirt.
“Hearing those benefits arouses… my curiosity. Could my having sessions benefit… our marriage? After all, Matilyn and I have a history… as roommates.”
He smiles, responding, “You don’t know what you’re asking for. Let’s put that on the back burner for now.”
“Okay… can I ask, is there any reason why you never refer to me with terms of endearment?”
“What should I call you?”
“It’s more special if you surprise me.”
“I’ll think about it then. Mattie is the one who’s good at that.”
Reyna nods, but her intuition whispers warnings she doesn’t want to hear, which might shatter the delicate illusion of their happy marriage.
An Extraordinary Confession
One evening, over an unremarkable dinner of meatloaf, green beans, and mashed potatoes, Reyna sits across from Alan at the table wearing a gray sweatshirt. The loose fabric hangs on her frame, softening the edges of her figure—a far cry from the polished, alluring image Matilyn once crafted for their first date.
“Reyna,” he begins, his voice steady but weighted with feigned regret. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
Now, instead of satin or confidence, Reyna carries an air of drab complacency, dishing out diner-style meals that echo the monotony of their life together. The woman, who once shimmered with potential under Matilyn’s careful guidance, has reverted to what he perceives as mediocrity.
Alan clears his throat and deliberately sets his fork down, breaking the monotony of the evening. Enough is enough. He must breach the dangling barrier and elevate his satisfaction to the next level.
“Reyna,” he begins, his voice steady but weighted with feigned regret. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
Reyna pauses mid-bite, her fork hovering. “Okay…”
He leans forward, his gaze steady, his tone calm. “Do you remember the night you invited me over, and I didn’t show? The night you thought someone else came?”
Reyna’s breath catches. “Of course. I relive it nearly every night. Some fantasies can take on a life of their own. If… if it wasn’t you, would it still be wrong to feel…?”
“Stop right there. Let me finish. I hope you can handle this…. It wasn’t a stranger. It was… me.”
The words hit her like a punch. Her fork clatters onto her plate as she stares at him, her expression a mix of horror and bitter understanding.
Reyna breathes softly. “So it wasn’t all in my head?”
Alan leans back in his chair, his tone measured, almost rehearsed. “No, it wasn’t. I didn’t want secrets to remain between us. I thought you deserved to know.”
She forces a bitter laugh, her eyes glistening. “You let me carry the memory of that night around as a dark stain on my past all this time. Now, you say you thought I should know?”
“This secret’s been dangling over me far too long. We can’t move forward with lies. We can’t move forward with lies.”
Reyna wipes her eyes, letting out a shaky breath. “I wanted it to be a moment to cherish, not regret…. I guess the silver lining is… you’re the only man I’ve given myself to. No more lies.”
But as Alan returns to his meal, a quiet bitterness settles over her.
Matilyn’s Unambiguous Provocation
Not one to accept being a secondary consideration, Matilyn feels it’s time to demonstrate to Reyna who Alan’s primary attraction is. So Matilyn stages a calculated power move. One evening, she steps onto the terrace outside her window. Dressed provocatively, her motions eliminate all ambiguity about the nature of Alan’s sessions.
From their apartment, Reyna catches Alan watching. She follows his gaze, her stomach dropping as she sees Matilyn through the glass. Alan’s phone vibrates. With a deep breath, his hand tightens to read the message. Moments later, he stands abruptly.
“I have a therapy session.”
Reyna forces a tight smile, her voice deceptively calm. “Of course you do. Just go, Alan. Don’t let me keep you from what you enjoy best.”
Alan hesitates, watching her closely. But when she doesn’t react, he grabs his jacket and leaves. The moment the door shuts, Reyna hurls her dinner plate against the wall, the sound of shattering porcelain echoing through the room.
Continued…
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