“Liv, come here.”
“What?” she snapped when she got into the living room.
I took a deep, calming breath and planted a smile on my face. “What’s all this?”
“It’s called furniture, Brody.” Her eyebrows rose. “You know, you sit on the couches, put drinks on the coffee table, put your feet up on the ottoman . . .”
“Cute, Liv, real cute. Where did it come from?”
“The furniture store,” she said slowly like she was talking to a child.
I huffed and gritted my teeth. “Olivia, where did you get the furniture and how much did it cost?”
“Do you not like it?”
“That’s not what I said, please answer my question.” Oh my God, I could only play this game with her so many times before I snapped. And I only had about another two minutes before I lost my calm tone.
“How could you not like it?” Tears instantly fell to her cheeks and I bit back a groan. “I bought them for you, it was only seven grand.”
Seven—seven grand. Only seven grand. “Olivia, where did you get seven grand?” Please God, please say from your father.
She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “You just had five thousand sitting in the savings account, I had to do something with it!”
“Olivia! Are you—are you—damn it! You pulled this shit again?”
Her tears kept falling but she stopped sniffling. “How dare you! I did this for you!”
“Every time, Liv, every time I start saving money you go and blow it on something we don’t need! And now this time you spent an extra two thousand? I have to pay the mortgage in a week.”
“It was a gift, you could at least say thank you! Every time I buy something you get upset, at least I’m giving you something, all you’ve ever done is take from me.”
With that, she turned and stormed down the hall to her bedroom, leaving me crushed, aching, and once again so damn tired of this. I rubbed my chest where the constant dull ache was now stabbing and fell into one of the kitchen table chairs.
Not more than ten minutes later she was back and bouncing through the kitchen. “Hey, babe! What do you want for dinner?”
I wasn’t even surprised by this anymore; I’d just been waiting until she came back. “It’s after midnight, Liv, I’m not really hungry.”
“Did you already eat dinner? I’ll heat some of this up,” she murmured the last part to herself as she continued to pull take-out boxes out of the fridge.
“Yeah, earlier tonight.”
“Oh.” She slammed the fridge door shut and turned to look at me. “All right, I get it. I can’t have kids so I’m not good enough to heat up food for you. Yeah, fine, Brody. Feed your damn self.”
And here she goes again.
My wife hadn’t always been like this—and despite how it seems, she’s not crazy—and our relationship hadn’t been like this either. We’d been high-school sweethearts, and then I’d left for the army right after we graduated, and everything changed. I came back home to visit after a deployment, and though we had stayed together, Liv and I weren’t close anymore. I knew why she’d stayed with me, but I hadn’t cared either way: She was someone to come back to when I visited my family.
Her parents hated me, and they let me know it every time they saw me. I wasn’t good enough for their daughter because I wasn’t going to college and didn’t come from money like they had. My family wasn’t poor by any means; we’d grown up in a great house in a great neighborhood. But we weren’t dripping with money and we didn’t belong to the country club that Liv’s parents did. So apparently that meant we were trash. Olivia loved that her parents didn’t accept me, and I knew that was the only reason we’d stayed together as long as we had. But like I said, I didn’t mind.
I had had a year left in the army when my world changed. She’d called me crying, saying she was pregnant. I’d requested emergency leave as soon as we got off the phone and married her the minute I got home. Her parents were furious—hell, so were mine—but no way in hell was I going to let her go through that alone. I couldn’t take care of her like her parents did, but I’d take care of them the best I could.
It took a lot of people high up pulling strings, but I’d been able to get us a house on base for as soon as I had to get back. Only thing was, she’d refused to go to base with me. Basically said thanks for marrying her and she was going to stay with her parents until I decided I was done “playing navy.” Shit you not. And I wasn’t even in the navy.
I couldn’t get leave often, but even when I did, she still didn’t see me. Didn’t even try. When I asked her, she’d said, “What’s the point? We’re already married.”
Yeah. Married and I haven’t seen you since two days after the fact.
The only thing she had included me in was the baby. After every appointment she’d sent pictures of the ultrasound, and she’d let me help her pick out a name. I’d gotten the message the minute she went into labor, and received more pictures after he was delivered. The next time I got leave, she’d still refused to see me and wouldn’t let me see our son. Instead, I’d stood outside her parents’ house and called her only to find out that if I wanted to see either of them, I wouldn’t re-enlist and I’d move back to Jeston.