Something went bang in her mind. I love you! It was just the second time they hung out but there they were, those words. He rubbed her back and said, “Don’t worry, I’m with you.” Her second sentence after that was, “I’ve never said this to anyone.”She hadn’t.So it was a double boom! It was boom and then boom again! “ You are a 26 year old traveling adventurer, and so he is, and she have never said these words to anyone?” She said, “No.” She never felt that there was a person that made the sentiment arise which might have triggered that expression out of her. There had never been an occasion which She felt the words were well-placed and valid in any context so She had never said them to anyone before.Although, he don’t consider himself, a very romantic kind of guy, he, on the other hand, had said those words before to the women in his life. So, he knew the taste of that. But now when he say, “Cindy, I love you,” the taste is completely different—the taste of saying something
Back to thier date. He was telling Cindy his dream for his future. He had worked for ten years of his life and studied for four of those. But that system was not something that felt right and He had consciously decided to step away from it. He did not want to engage in money. This was not how humans are meant to live. He wanted to go back to living more naturally. He told her that mother nature provides all that they need. Water is free and abundant. He didn’t want electricity. They could have internet, but no wifi. Would she be okay with a cabled connection? She said yes. Fair compromise. But their phones always had to be off or on flight mode. He wanted to live in a cob house just like people had lived for centuries. Thier food would be provided by mother earth: they would eat what they planted and plant what they ate. Would she be okay with all of this? She said that she would. He told her to really consider this seriously because it really wouldn’t work if she asked him to mo
Apart from a small break they had when Gerard was in Armenia for his vipassana, they were now living together and figuring out their lives as ‘us’. It was the first time She was experiencing living with a romantic partner. They did have a few ups and downs.And some huge volcanoes.Once, he actually left!He left! They had a fight and he told her that this was crap, that he couldn’t go on and that he was out!They had barely slept that whole night, it was horrible.They were in the same room but emotionally miles apart. She felt like a stranger to herself.She had no appetite, her mind was dull, everything was blurry. Her whole being felt scattered. In the morning, she opened the door for him in tears and he left! Her landlady was very specific about their shared living areas and how to lock up so She had to see him out the door and off he went with his black-or-white view of life.He’s the kind of person that when he leaves, he leaves and he was sure that he wasn’t going to see h
Gerard changed all of sudden,should she call it “ Husbands regret” What do you mean, you are pregnant. We were going to wait, Cindy, remember? Just tell me you’re joking?” Cindy felt her husband’s furious words strike her like boulders. She stared up into his livid face and didn’t recognize the man standing in front of her. He was shocked, that was all. He was thrown by her news. Her words would sink in soon enough and he’d go back to being the man she adored, the wonderful man to whom she had entrusted her heart. She just needed to give him time to get over his shock. The more she tried to rationalize his inexplicable reaction to what should have been joyous news, the more the insidious little voice in the back of her mind kept telling her that she was lying to herself. This was a side of Gerard that she had never seen before—one that he had never allowed her to see—and she was terrified of what that said about their two-year marriage.“I know that it’s sooner than we’d planned,” sh
“No!” They were all taken aback by her sudden, shrill vehemence. “No, I can’t stay here. I have to go home. I should be there right now. My shift would have ended an hour ago; I should be at home.”“That would be stupid and downright dangerous in your condition, Mrs. Palmer,” the doctor admonished, and Cindy’s world reeled.“What did you call me?” she asked in a shocked whisper.“He called you Mrs. Palmer,” Rick taunted from where he stood in the doorway with his arms folded across his broad chest. “That is still your name, isn’t it?” She stared at Richard Palmer helplessly, not knowing what to say and suddenly hating him with a ferocity that shook her.“Well?” he prompted sarcastically, and she nodded mutely, not understanding this hostility from someone who had always loved and respected her.“Please . . .” she whispered. “Please, Rick, I have to go home.”“ You’re going home all right,” Rick informed her coldly. “Just as soon as it can be arranged.”“Mr. Palmer, I strongly advise a
He had never once during their two-year-long marriage said that he loved her, but he had shown her in so many ways that she had believed that was enough. In the face of his abandonment, she had come to question that love and had been forced to acknowledge that the words would have meant more; the words would have meant everything. They would have set his love in stone.Now he was standing here telling her that he had wanted Kayla after all? What was she supposed to believe? Why was he treating her like the villain for leaving, when he was the one who had driven her away? In the midst of her turmoil, she heard an unmistakable sound—the familiar irrepressible chatter and giggle of a toddler.Of a particular toddler. Cindy’s panicked gaze swung to the open door and she was horrified to see the babysitter leading her beautiful daughter toward the room. Her anxious gaze swung toward Gerard but he seemed oblivious. He was watching her intently, still wanting an answer to his previous questi
“Me?” Cindy did not know what to react to first: the unbelievable news that her beautiful, strong husband was deaf, or the accusation that she was somehow responsible for his condition. It was all too awful to comprehend. “But . . . I . . . how?” Rick made an impatient sound at the back of his throat, seemingly sickened by her continued ignorance. He touched his brother’s arm to gain his attention. Gerard turned to face him.“ I’ve asked that girl Katrina where she lives.” He nodded toward Cindy, unable to even say her name. “Some dump downtown. I’ll pack a couple of bags for her and Mikayla.”“ Pack only a change of clothes for the little one,” Gerard ordered, his gaze softening as he looked down into his still-sleeping daughter’s pretty face. “If the rags she’s wearing right now are any indication, there won’t be anything worth keeping. I’ll clothe my own child.” Cindy’s eyes stung with tears at that terrible insult; if only he knew how much she had sacrificed and slaved for every s
Kayla decided that she didn’t like scary and noisy helicopters and cried during the entire short, chartered flight from Plettenberg Bay to Camps Bay. Her beleaguered father, who was figuring out that parenthood may not be as fabulous as he had first imagined, battled to keep her calm while Cindy, who was feeling the effects of some pretty powerful medication, remained mostly oblivious to it all. Cindy was vaguely aware of Gerard frantically trying to shush the child. He made funny faces and played silly little games but Kayla refused to be comforted by someone who was a total stranger to her. She was too small to be belted in but she stubbornly refused to stay in Gerard’s lap. Instead she kept trying to crawl over onto her mother’s lap, and Cindy tried her best to soothe the little girl, but Kayla wasn’t too impressed with her limp hugs either.“ Do something,” Gerard eventually entreated, when Kayla slid from his grasp like a greased pig and melted to the floor in a boneless heap. On