“What’s wrong with being old?” The woman’s ears were growing hot too. Her hand even crumpled the packet of seasoning she had picked up.
“Well, that—”
“Everyone gets old eventually. They grow old, then they die.” The woman raised one eyebrow and turned to look at her.
“Do you think you’re still the same as when you were dating my husband?”
The woman’s eyes widened instantly. Her jaw seemed to harden, her brows drawing together. Her breathing quickened.
“Hey, marriage requires serious consideration. Age is one of those factors. You didn’t think beforehand about what would happen to your child if their father were gone someday, did you?”
The woman fell silent. Then she sighed. She released her grip on the shopping cart handle and closed her eyes for a few moments. Her head began to ache slightly.
“Of course you have no idea how hard your former boyfriend worked to become a good father. And you? I know you only wanted to use his money.”
She took a step toward the woman she knew as her husband’s former girlfriend. Her husband himself had told her, in the middle of the happiest intimate moment of her life. Still, one story after another always found its way into their conversations.
“Even if he’s gone someday, at least I’ll only remember the good things about him with my son and daughters. You don’t need to worry.”
A fleeting image made every hair on her body stand on end as it flashed across her mind: a tragic Sunday scene involving another couple at the lake.
She patted the woman on the shoulder. “We’ll trust each other and take care of each other. Even when I’m alone someday.” The woman’s smile bloomed. She gripped the shopping cart handle again. Meanwhile, the other woman was no longer folding her arms across her chest. Her hands were clenched behind her back.
“Baby! Where are you?” A man’s voice rang out, apparently making the woman’s shoulders jerk in surprise.
The woman glanced over with half a smile. “You need to trust your husband too.”
At last, the woman took her cart and left. Only then did her heart begin pounding again. She couldn’t understand why she had to run into her husband’s former girlfriend on such a busy day.
Her husband had just come out of the bathroom when she was already lying on one side of the bed. He lay down beside her, falling asleep on his side with his arms around her back. His arm slowly tightening around her made her squeal.
“If you want to hug me, don’t do it so slowly, Babe. That tickles!” She tried to pull his arm away, but it was wrapped too tightly around her. Her efforts were useless.
“Thank you for trusting this old man, Babe.” His voice sounded deep beneath his wife’s indignant squeals. That made her tense shoulders relax.
She looked back at him.
“You heard that?”
The man nodded. Then he stole a kiss from the tip of his wife’s nose.
“I’ll always try not to disappoint you.” Their eyes met, their gazes seeming to bind them together.
His wife smiled. She turned around, then cupped her husband’s increasingly wrinkled cheeks.
“I know. That’s why I trust you, Babe. I hope I can make your later years happy too.”
“You already have.” Their smiles blossomed for only a moment before her husband pressed a warm kiss to her lips.
His wife immediately pushed against his chest when his hands began roaming over her body. She quickly pulled away from him.
“Even though I trust you, Babe, I’m not giving you my body tonight...!”
“You have to, Babe...”
“Ah, no way!”
His wife shook her head repeatedly and turned her back to him again. She even moved all the way into the corner of the bed. In the end, her husband shifted to the middle. It would be a whole ordeal if she fell off later. Wasn’t falling into his life enough for her?