The Chain

by Joy Richards

  “How about you?” she asked to shift the conversation. “How did you meet your wife?” It was a slightly personal question, but she could not help herself.

  “She was just a friend from work,” he replied quickly. That was true. It was also true that they had started dating with the very clear provision that it would not be a serious relationship. Then, they had decided to go for tacos on a Saturday afternoon. Such a small decision can change your whole life. She’d had a bad fish taco and was sick. The day after she was fine, and they’d had a fun Sunday in bed. In hindsight, of course being sick had made her birth control ineffective. And three weeks later they had both held each other and cried, while Rita clutched a blazing positive pregnancy test.

  She had wanted to get an abortion, and he had been relieved. He did not want to feel as though he was pressuring her into it, but she was very determined that this minor bump in the road would not derail her life plans. She wanted to travel, see the world. She wanted to be the youngest woman in New York to make partner at a wealth management firm. However, she simply could not go through with it. She went down to Planned Parenthood three times, once with Alex, once with her best friend and once alone. She just couldn’t, she’d told him.

  And then, he had gone with her to the scan. It took him a few minutes to realise that those two pulsating blobs on the screen were people, children, his own children. He started crying, big embarrassing sobs as Rita and the nurse tried to comfort him. Something changed on that day. He could see Rita as someone’s mum, wearing tight jeans on her curvy figure and tying her blonde hair up in a ponytail. Imagining her as a mother made him fall in love with her. Imagining his children looking like her made him love them too. He could not explain it, but he felt fiercely determined to love and protect them. They were a part of him and had not asked to be brought into this world. He owed them a happy life.

  Alex asked Rita to marry him on a walk on The High Line, while they were eating ice cream and making fun of tourists. She said yes, and two weeks later they got married at the New York City Hall on a sunny Wednesday morning. They didn’t turn up to the office that day. Somehow, they could not bring themselves to care about work as much as they used to.

  “She was a colleague,” he repeated. “And I guess we just fell in love.”

  Sarah smiled. She was so happy for him. She got up, collecting her bags. She explained she had to go. She put her hand on his shoulder, caringly.

  “Alex,” she said, softly, “I’m so happy you got what you wanted.” She kissed him on the cheek and turned round, briskly making her way to her flight. She could not stop smiling. As much as she loved her husband, she would have hated for her happiness to have come at the cost of Alex’s.

  She was no longer in love with him, but would always care about his feelings. This way, they were both happy. She had her perfect romance with Vin, their tiny loft with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, their late evenings out with friends, their many expensive vacations to exciting places around the world. He had his wife, their boisterous twins and their days out as a family at the zoo or at the beach. She could put that chapter of her life to rest, go home to Vin, kiss him and stroll into the sunset together.

  Alex watched Sarah walk off. As always, she was carrying too many things: hand luggage, a briefcase, a jacket and a shopping bag from the duty free. She’d seemed happy, in spite of the fact she didn’t have any children. Maybe she’d changed her mind. After all, he had. He very much had. His children were the centre of his world, and he could never imagine his life without them. He smiled thinking about them. He should FaceTime them from the gate before they went to bed.

  As he gathered his things, Alex wondered what Sarah had meant by her parting words. His life was nothing like what he had always wanted, and yet he loved it more than he ever thought possible. He shrugged. I guess I’ll never know.

  He picked up his bag and walked towards the gate.

  THE END

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