You Could Have Stayed

"You could have stayed."

Kelly was pissed. "No! Fuck that bitch! She's not going to--"

"Kelly--"

"No, she kept trying to say it was your fault, that you drove me to cheat on you. That's bullshit! I'm a grown woman, and I--"

"Kelly--"

"--make my own fucking decisions, and I made a bad one and--"

"Kelly!"

She stopped, still fuming. "Kel, she wasn't saying that. She was saying how what I did set the stage for what you did, but she wasn't blaming me for you cheating. We kept talking after you left. She's smart, and I think she can help us."

"You didn't deserve it."

"Neither did you."

"... I can't lose you, Aaron. Not again. Not--" She choked up a bit. "Not when we're so close."

"Kel..." I took her in my arms as she cried. "Shh, baby, it's going to be okay. I love you."

"What?" She looked up at me, dumbfounded, and I kissed her.

"I love you. We're going to get through this, okay? We both want to. You're right: we're so close. So let's go back there next week and keep working, okay?" That set off a new wave of sobs as she pressed her face into my chest.

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"You could have stayed."

"No, hon, you were sick." My wife of just over six months smoothed my hair. I could feel her rings on my scalp as she did so, new rings for a new commitment.

"I could have taken an Uber or something."

Kelly hesitated briefly. "No, it's okay. I didn't want to stay there without you."

I pulled back from her. "Baby, you were having fun. You could have stayed; I wasn't so sick that I couldn't take care of myself."

"I didn't want you to worry."

"Worry about wh-- Oh." Her face fell. "Babe, no. I wouldn't have married you again if I didn't trust you. I appreciate that you're trying to make that easier, but..." I sighed. "You're working still. You've got your own hobbies, and I do, too. We're going to be separate sometimes, and I'm already trusting you those other times."

"I know, but-- I just love you. I'm still so grateful for the work we both put in. I don't want to... I'm not going to do anything to put that at risk."

"Kel, if there was a problem like there was before, you'd tell me, right?"

"Of course!"

"And if I get jealous or worried, we worked on the skills for that, right? All the roleplaying and problem solving and all of the other stuff that we did in counseling?"

She nodded. "Okay, hon. Okay. I get it. Thank you. Really, thank you." Kelly curled up, snuggling into me as we sat on the couch together. "I love you, hon."

I kissed the top of her head. "I love you too, Kel. I always will. I promise."