Forgiven
He enters the room wearing his night suit as usual. I barely look up from the novel I am reading as he gets in beside me and after a few moments requests me to switch of the lights. I nod absently, my mind still wandering somewhere in the fantasies of the story I am reading, but switch off the lights. He worked hard all day after all and I prepare to sleep myself when his hand finds mine. I look at him surprised as he pulls me closer and kisses my lips as passionately as possible. I try my best to match him but he senses something. Backing away he asks politely, "Are you alright?"
I give him a sardonic smile which he fails to interpret and kiss his lips, careful enough not to repeat my earlier mistake. He is satisfied and makes love to me, while I lie in his arms, my heart and mind both separated from my body. He mistakes my willingness for physical closeness as love and interest; I could not help but feel sympathetic towards him. I never really expected him to understand after all. He stops when he is too tired to continue and rolls over to his side. I look at his shoulder, at the nail marks that are not mine. He mumbles an intelligible confession of love and goodnight before falling asleep, content of having more than one woman. I pity his ignorance of the fact that he lost one of them long ago.
I roll over to face the window and smile to myself as I remembered the day I found out he was cheating on me. At first I cried and bawled like a kid but then decided that it did not matter. Now, living with him was as good as living alone and I was pretty much used to it before my marriage. It took only a small amount of physical warmth to cloud my emotionally frozen heart, and he never tried to search anything in my eyes. This suited both of us, as we continued to attend social events, arm in arm, work hard and earn money and go for a holiday once a year. Our fights and disagreements had vanished. He took it as an improved relationship, I took it as a nonexistenet one. It has always been easy for me to accept change in life. I never confronted him with the scented handkerchiefs and hair strands I found on his jackets. He was never really strong when it came to the self control department. I forgive him for succumbing to temptations. I close my eyes and fall asleep.
End Sur Edited by Sur_Singhania - 14 years ago
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