His First Wife

“No . . .” I protested. Kerry pulled me to her chest.

“Don’t say no so quickly,” she said. “Think about it.”

“I’m thinking about it.” I pulled away. “And I’m thinking it’s a bad idea. You know how it goes with me and your mother.”

“But you won’t be dealing with my mother. See, now you’ll have a secretary. So I’ll deal with her.”

“But Kerry, what about your job? Didn’t you say you wanted to stay there until you took the MCAT again?”

After Kerry didn’t get accepted to the medical schools of her choice the second time around, she decided that instead of applying to different schools, she’d pull up her MCAT scores to prove herself. She signed up for the next test, but I didn’t see her crack one of the study guides I’d gotten her when we got back from our honeymoon. Then Kerry said she’d been too busy planning the wedding and working to study, so the date came and went. She decided not to take the test that year. She’d wait and study for the next one.

“I’m studying. It’ll be fine. I can work for you and study when I’m free,” she said. I could tell it would be a bad idea to push the issue about the test. I realized before we even got married that it was a sore spot for Kerry. Between her mother constantly implying that Kerry had done something wrong and the stack of rejection letters Kerry still hadn’t thrown out, she seemed to have enough anxiety about the whole thing.

I didn’t say anything. I stepped away from Kerry and walked into the bedroom. I didn’t want to fight with her.

“What, Jamison? What?” She was following behind me.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Well, what do you think?”

“I think I’ll have to keep thinking about it.”

I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. When I went back into the bedroom, Kerry was sitting on the bed. I could tell she was crying.

I walked over to the closet and threw my pants into the laundry basket, trying to figure out how to avoid the drama. This was how Kerry got me to react. She knew that. She knew I couldn’t just sit there and let her cry. What kind of man would do that? Not one who wanted to live in peace.

Wrapped in a towel, I sat down beside her on the bed.

I exhaled and looked at the wall next to the bed. There was a vase Kerry had filled with some of the rose petals that were on the ground when I proposed to her.

“I guess it won’t be too bad,” I said finally.

She sniffled.

“We can try it for a little while, but if it doesn’t work out, we have to stop.”

She sat up and wiped her tears.

“Okay?” I asked. I just wanted her to stop crying.

“Jamison, I want us to be a team. Is that so bad?”

“We are a team,” I said. “I just never imagined you working with me. I thought you hated the company.”

“But this is what’s best for us,” she said. “I want to do what will be good for us in the future.”

“What about what’s best for you?” I asked. “Your dreams.”

“Well, I can put that on hold for a while, so this can work. So we can make sure it works. Then, with the money we can focus on med school,” she said.

“Doesn’t sound bad, I guess,” I said, getting up and heading toward the shower. “But only until we

get things together. Then we can focus on getting you back in school.”

“Exactly.” She got up too and came behind me. She started taking off her shirt.

“Woman, what are you doing?”