4: 4
4
Tabitha blinked at me, all innocence.
"Why do you ask about that?"
Katherine's hand curled into a fist.
"No reason. Just curious."
Tabitha's voice turned smug.
"A hundred and eighty thousand each."
"And I've got high standards. The regular ones don't do anything for me. These are limited editions. Only three of them in the whole country."
"I never expected Asher to be so generous. He bought me every last one in one go."
Katherine went quiet.
She turned and looked at the canvas bag hanging by the entryway.
The same one she carried every time she went out, the one she'd used for a full seven years.
Maybe she was envious too.
After all, she'd been so careful, so timid she'd only ever asked for a hundred and eighty thousand in bride price.
I'd told her I'd give it once I saved up. Eight years, and I still hadn't.
I was fumbling for something to say.
Katherine gave a flat little nod.
"I'm going in now."
The words I'd prepared just slid back down my throat.
The days that followed.
Katherine turned obedient. She didn't make trouble, and she didn't come asking me for money.
She went to the station alone and sent her parents back to their hometown.
The washed-out old dress she always wore was gone, replaced by a new one.
Her old phone with the cracked screen got a new case.
A woman who'd always looked gray and washed out.
And now, somehow, she'd started to glow.
I noticed the obvious change in her.
It actually left me a little pleased.
"Katherine, if you'd tidied yourself up like this sooner, we'd never have fought at all."
That day, I came up behind her and slid my arms around her waist.
I was about to go further.
Katherine sidestepped me, her face blank.
"It's my time of the month. Not convenient."
Like a bucket of cold water over the head.
"Fine."
"Get some rest, then."
I pulled the covers over myself and was soon fast asleep.
I didn't dig into it.
How Katherine had changed so quietly, so subtly.
I only felt that she was slowly turning into more of a woman.
Digging into it was too much trouble.
All I had to do was sit back and enjoy it.
Over the next few days, I kept making advances toward Katherine.
She should have taken them.
But her face stayed cold, and she told me she had a business trip.
"A business trip?"
I froze and grabbed her by the wrist.
"You're lying. You never go on business trips."
"Are you sneaking off to fool around with some guy?"
Katherine shot me a mocking look.
"I never went on trips before because I had to come home and do the housework, take care of you."
"Now you've got Tabitha."
"So of course you don't need me anymore."
"Am I not even allowed to think about myself, to go out and earn a little more money?"
Just then, my phone suddenly rang.
A friend was messaging to razz me about the way Katherine had eaten that cake last night. Messy and ridiculous.
"Come on, are you trying to end the poor woman's life tomorrow?"
"A video that humiliating, and you actually posted it in the group chat where all of us could see it."
"You're a real friend, aren't you."
Katherine caught it out of the corner of her eye, disbelieving.
"You posted me in the group chat?"
For the first time I felt a little awkward, and I explained.
"It wasn't me. It was Tabitha."
"She thought the way you ate the cake yesterday was kind of funny, so she filmed it and put it on her feed."
"Relax, it's just our little group chat—"
I thought Katherine would cry.
Instead she laughed.
"Asher Sanchez, you're really something."
I thought we'd have a huge fight.
But Katherine was quiet the whole night.
Early the next morning, Katherine put on a white suit I'd rarely seen her wear, ready to leave for her trip.
I looked her over, struck, and asked, "Want me to drive you?"
"No need."
Katherine turned me down flat. "The company sends a car."
"Oh."
Saved me the trouble anyway. Gas costs a fair bit these days.
Once Katherine was out of sight, I got back on the group chat, calling everyone in to game.
Howard, out of nowhere, asked me one thing.
"You and your wife have a fight or something?"
"Married couples fight in bed at night and make up by morning."
"No matter how big the problem, you've got to talk it out."
"And that Tabitha,"
"she's no good. Last time I saw her getting cozy with some other guy at the club. You'd better keep your distance."
I waved him off, irritated.
"All right, all right, I know what I'm doing."
Didn't I know exactly what kind of person Tabitha was?
If I hadn't been broke back then.
Would Tabitha ever have broken up with me?
A girl like that knows how to read the situation. Sharp as they come.
Even if she was after something, she was after my money.
And I was after her looks and the way she made me feel.
Not like Katherine.
Just a big fool, through and through.
After nothing at all, no title, no status, she'd stayed with me eight years.
And I knew better than anyone.
Tabitha was an ex I humored now and then, nothing more than a bit of fun.
Just playing pretend.
But Katherine was different.
Sure, I didn't feel that intense way about her anymore.
But she was frugal, sweet, sensible.
She wouldn't spend two hundred on a dress for herself, but she'd spend five hundred to buy me a genuine leather belt.
A woman like that is exactly the kind you make your wife.
I knew what mattered.
After Katherine left on her trip, a deep boredom set in.
Every day it was either gaming or lying on the couch, gabbing on the phone with Tabitha.
The floor was a mess, piled with fruit peels and trash.
The leftovers on the dining table had started to rot and stink.
I kept waiting for Katherine to come back from her trip.
She'd said the company had her down for three days.
But it had been five now.
And she still wasn't back.
After I pressed her again and again, she sent an explanation.
"The company's shuffled things around. They tacked another two days onto the trip."
"Barring anything unexpected, I'll be back the day after tomorrow at five in the afternoon."
That day, I was getting ready to take her out for a candlelit dinner when she got home.
Women are like that. Slap them once, then hand them a sweet.
The last time we'd had a candlelit dinner was three years ago.
When Katherine saw the surprise I'd set up, she was bound to be thrilled.
But I waited from five until ten at night.
And Katherine never came.
Calls unanswered, messages ignored.
Just as I was pacing back and forth, anxious.
My buddy Howard sent another message.
"Man, you two are so close and you're still pulling this whole going-public routine like some lovesick kid?"
"What's the hotel you're staying at tonight called? The photos your wife posted on her feed even had a soaking tub. You can tell it's expensive. Asher, look at you finally figuring things out!"
