Chapter 3

Darlene's POV

On Wednesday morning, Bernard was shaving in the bathroom while I was setting the table for breakfast.

"Can you come home early tonight?" I asked, pouring him a bowl of cereal.

"I'll try, but things have been really tight with the project lately."

"Next Tuesday is our wedding anniversary. You remember, right?"

He paused in the middle of taking a sip of his coffee.

"Next Tuesday?"

"Yeah, it'll be our fifth anniversary."

He looked up at me, and for a split second, there was blankness in his eyes. But then, he quickly smiled.

"Of course I remember. I'll take the day off and spend the whole day with you."

When he said "of course I remember", he enunciated the words too heavily—so heavily that it felt like he was covering up that split second of guilt.

When he proposed five years ago, he had said, "I'll remember every anniversary until the day dementia takes my memory away."

Now I even had to remind him about our fifth anniversary. It seemed dementia had come early for him.

I walked to the entryway. His briefcase sat on the shoe cabinet. The zipper wasn't fully closed, and the corner of a file folder was peeking out.

The moment I touched the shoulder strap, images surged forth.

Bernard and Tammy walked out of the office building one after the other.

She jogged a couple of steps to catch up with him and tilted her face up to say something.

He looked down at her and smiled.

The evening breeze ruffled her short hair, and he reached up to tuck a stray strand behind her ear.

Tammy froze for a moment, the tips of her ears turning bright red.

Bernard froze too, then quickly withdrew his hand and tucked it into his pants pocket, his pace quickening by half a beat.

The images dissolved.

The sound of running water was still coming from the bathroom.

I stood where I was and slowly set the briefcase strap back down.

What would come next? Holding hands? An embrace?

I didn't want to wait for that day.

Back in the bedroom, I pulled my phone out from under the pillow and opened my chat with Lena.

"I've gone through the agreement and found no issues with it. I'll bring it up with him after our anniversary next week."

Lena replied instantly, "Are you sure you want to wait until the anniversary?"

"Yup. I want to give this marriage one last chance. If he remembers to show up that day, I'll think it over again."

"And if he doesn't?"

I stared at the screen, typing out a few words, then deleting them.

In the end, I simply replied, "Then there'll be nothing left to think about."

On the day of our anniversary, I got up extra early.

I made Bernard's favorite bacon and eggs in the kitchen. When plating, I used ketchup to draw a smiley face on the rim of the plate, just like I had back when we were newlyweds.

His alarm went off at 7:30 am.

At 8:00 am, the study light came on.

From the kitchen, I heard him on the phone. His tone was urgent and clipped, the kind that came with a furrowed brow and a sense of pressure.

"When did it happen? Alright, I'll head over right away."

By the time he walked into the kitchen, his suit was already on. He looked at me while knotting his tie.

"We'll celebrate our anniversary tonight. An important meeting just came up at work. I need to head in and deal with it first."

He glanced at the bacon and eggs on the table but didn't sit down.

"Go on without me. I'll try to make it back by noon."

The door closed behind him.

I stood in the kitchen, looking at the two plates of bacon and eggs. The eggs had already started to go cold. The ketchup smiley face on the rim of the plate sat there, just as cold.