Genre: Romance
Plot: A couple that has just moved to a place that one loves, and the other hates
Words to use: travel, adventure, escape, beginning, longing, hope, despair, mismatch, opportunity, renew, relearn, fall, break, perspective, thrive
On the birch trees in the front yard, the first leaves of fall shivered in the cool breeze. Boxes lined the white wall front hallway that divided the first floor.
“Did you remember the pan covers,” she said, “the ones above the refrigerator.”
He sighed, his shoulders slumped down toward the floor, despair singed his voice. “Yes, of course I did,” he said, “do you think I am dumb?”
“No, of course not,” she said, stopping to look toward him on the other side of the overly bright living room. “We need some curtains for this room.”
She turned her attention back to her box, “This is going to be such a wonderful adventure. I wish you wouldn’t look so miserable,” she told him, not daring to look toward him, “Think of it as a new beginning.”
“I need a break,” he said, throwing his box onto the sofa, it bounced, crashing with a thud on its side, the contents inside jettisoned from their cozy home, and settled between the cushions. He threw himself onto the upholstered side chair in the front facing room. “I hope this is only temporary,” he said under his breath. A longing to run away surged through his body indicated by the nervous tapping of his fingers on the arms of the chair.
“What was that?” She said, holding towels in her hands, “did you need a break?”
He grumbled curse words under his breath, his back turned to her so she didn’t hear him. She looked down at the towels and turned on her heel, heading down the hall toward their new bathroom. He didn’t see the newly wet, glistening eyes.
“And I was so longing to travel more,” he said to himself, shaking his head in disbelief, “what have I done?”
“I just love our new bathroom,” she said when she returned, “it is so much bigger than at the apartment,” her voice high pitched, excitement filled the air around her. It didn’t penetrate his dark cloud over him. He sat pushed out at the edge of the cushion, only his head was visible. “Did you want to go out for dinner or BBQ again. We have a lovely yard now. It was delicious yesterday.”
“What I want to do is escape the domestic nightmare,” his voice gruff and cracking in anger, “I don’t want to BBQ, I don’t want to be here. We are so mismatched it is almost unbearable. I didn’t want this but I went along with it now I am stuck.”
“You just have the wrong perspective,” she insisted, the angry words flowed off her. “This is an opportunity, we can thrive here, wait and see.”
“I know it is going to be hard to settle into this new life but we had little choice. Don’t forget it wasn’t my fault the trouble you got into,” she said, removing a vase wrapped in bubble wrap, setting it on the side table. He looked at her, shook his head, his long curly hair bobbed up and down.
“I remember,” he said, he went toward the far wall and leaned against it, his hands buried in his pockets. “I am sorry for that, you are dealing with this better than me.”
She stopped her unpacking and went toward him, leaned her weight into his body and laid her head on his shoulder, “We will be okay. We need to relearn and renew our lives now. We can’t change the past, just adapt.”
“I will try,” he said, putting his arms around her shoulders, “I will try for us.”
“I know you will,” she replied, “because we can’t let them find us again…”