Chapter Ten: Three Years, Five Months
"Danny gave Zoe a tricycle, so all she ever wants to do right now is ride up and down the hallway until it makes you dizzy to watch her… but somehow she never actually gets dizzy herself. She likes to load as many of her dolls as possible onto her lap, and then she cries when they fall down and she runs over them. And then two minutes later she picks them back up, and off she goes again. She has so much energy, it's unbelieveable…"
Tony laughed. "Sounds like she's quite a handful."
"Yeah." Michelle smiled. "But she's the cutest handful ever, so that kinda makes up for it."
"I know, I got that picture you sent me… she's getting really big."
The picture that had been accompanied by a letter that was all about Zoe, with not one mention of Michelle herself apart from where she had signed her name at the end…
"She is."
Because suddenly Michelle didn't want to talk about herself with Tony anymore… not since she had started dating that guy. So they had carefully skirted around the subject of her wellbeing for the past half hour, instead talking about anything and everything else…
They looked at each other now, the silence between them slowly growing longer and more uncomfortable as each became more and more unsure about what to say next.
Tony wondered if they'd slept together. They probably had, they'd been dating for two months now, after all…
Another man, sleeping with his wife, with his Michelle… the sinking feeling in his stomach wanted to express itself on his face, but he couldn't let it, he mustn't…
"I broke up with Matt."
"Huh?" was all Tony could say, snapping out of his reverie.
"We went out to dinner a few times, saw a movie… but it was all wrong. He wasn't you, and I just couldn't take that."
"Oh, Michelle…"
What exactly was he supposed to say in this situation? Sorry it didn't work out or relieved to hear it?
"You don't have to say anything, Tony. I just wanted you to know."
She looked at him then, straight in the eye; the first time she'd done that in two months.
He looked back. Nodded. Smiled. "Thanks."
A small but very real smile appeared on her lips in return.