Their New Beginning (Oh Captain, My Captain 5)

Chapter One

Jax

It’s one of those rare nights both of our schedules allowed us to have dinner together at a decent time. Avery has my attention though. She’s sitting across from me, her head angled down with her eyes on her plate. All I can think about is how different this dinner is compared to those dinners after we were first married. Avery used to run her feet over mine and along my legs, laughing so much over something that she would spill her drink almost every single time. There was a permanent smile on her face. I’ve never met a happier person.

Now, she doesn’t even look at me. Her phone vibrates next to her plate, and she picks it up, responding to whatever it is. When she sets it down, I decide to try and talk to her. We’re almost finished with dinner and she hasn’t spoken a word.

“How was your day?”

Her golden brown eyes lift to meet mine. “Fine. Yours?”

“It was good. Happy I was able to have dinner with you.” I try to give her a full smile, but it doesn’t feel real.

“Glad you could find time out of your busy schedule to have dinner with your wife.” Her voice is sarcastically cheery.

“I always do my best to spend time with you, you know that.”

She gives me a small smile as if things are all better now when we both know they aren’t. I want to remind her that she could have spent the entire weekend with me when I went to the cabin with Ashton and everyone, but she “had things to do.” Part of me feels like she wants me to bend my schedule to her every wish, but she hasn’t rearranged her more flexible schedule to match mine.

Is that what’s been wrong with us? She thinks I’m too busy for her? We cooked dinner together, sat through an entire meal, and didn’t talk until just now. I didn’t give her those small touches like I used to and she didn’t look over my shoulder to make sure I was doing it right. This has been our life for months, and I can’t figure out the source of the problem. I can’t even remember the last time I held her hand.

Her phone vibrates again. She picks it up and then, without looking at me says, “I’ve got to go to the hospital. Be sure to turn on the dishwasher after you’ve loaded it.” Avery stands then disappears down the hall to our bedroom to change into her scrubs. She’s a head nurse at a local hospital and apparently, they need her. A few minutes later, she leaves without so much as a goodbye, much less an I love you.

With a sigh, I throw away the bit of dinner I had left and start cleaning up. I guess making sure I run the dishwasher is more important than a goodbye. There used to be a time when Avery wouldn’t let me leave the house, even to run to the store for five minutes, without kissing her and telling her how much I love her.

We’ve been married for four, almost five, years. I met her when I was playing basketball one summer with a bunch of the guys. I sprained my ankle, nothing serious, and she was on shift at the hospital when I arrived. She fixed me up and sent me on my merry way, but not until I got her number. Her smile got to me first. She was always smiling, and I watched her every time she was in the room. Avery had a bubbly personality and being young, with nothing to lose, I was going to ask her out.

Her first answer was a laughing no. Like she couldn’t believe a random stranger would come into her place of work and ask her out. After insisting on a bunch of unnecessary tests, so I wouldn’t have to leave just yet, she caved a little.

“Why do you want me to go on a date with you so badly?” she had asked.

“I love your smile,” I’d told her honestly. “Why wouldn’t I want to ask you on a date?”

Avery gave me that smile and finally agreed. After that first date, I was hooked. We started seeing each other and a short time later, I woke up just seconds before she did. I glanced over as she awakened and suddenly proposed. I wanted mornings like that for the rest of my life. She smiled and laughed, thinking I was kidding, but I wasn’t.

“Really?” she asked.

I nodded. “Let’s go elope today, Avery. I love you. I want to spend every day of my life with you.”

Once again, she gave me that smile, and we eloped. We’ve been together ever since. Somewhere along the way, I lost that smiling, laughing Avery. We aren’t the couple we used to be, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what changed. I’ve been trying to fix things, but obviously, my attempts aren’t working.

Maybe I need to try harder. I think that we both let things slip to the side and I need to work to fix things before they get worse.