This Was Meant To Be

Had it?

“You know how much this means to me, Carl. I’ve worked so hard. I just can’t do it. I can’t take a year. I’m sorry.”

Carl’s face fell, and he turned away from her. She knew she’d hurt him.

Leigh was tempted to sigh, but she bit it back. There had been more than enough sighing already.

Well, that was dinner ruined. It had been too long since they’d made the time to sit down together for a real meal that included more than one sandwich each. She’d gone to such trouble to get it all right.

But it didn’t look like there was any salvaging it.

Still, she had put a lot of effort into the blackened fish. Might as well eat it, thought Leigh, and attacked the plate in front of her methodically.

Carl left everything on the table and walked away. She heard the bedroom door closed and wondered, again, how they had reached such an impasse.

They used to be able to talk everything through and find compromises. Now, not only was she not very inclined to look for a compromise, she was annoyed that he had so neatly left her to do the washing up.

No point wasting all the food, though.

Leigh finished her food and gathered the plates to take to the kitchen. Once there, she neatly boxed and packed everything and put it in the fridge.

As she wiped down the white counters with the red trim, she found herself soothed by the monotony of the chores.

She didn’t wait for Carl to get to the trash, either. She didn’t want another long suffering sigh.

Leigh walked back to the living room and walked through to the terrace she had fallen in love with two years ago, when she and Carl had decided to move in together. She’d made it her little oasis, with plants and even a couple of boxes of herbs for the kitchen.

She loved getting up in the morning and having coffee on the terrace. She could close her eyes and imagine that it was a real garden, and it was all hers.

She breathed it in, but the calmness she usually found out there seemed to be missing. Even in the city, with city sounds always in the background, she had always felt like she was in a different place when she stepped out there.

Irrationally, she found herself resenting Carl for that peace that evaded her. It wasn’t his fault, of course. She knew that.

It was going to be a hectic week. She had an important case she needed to find many precedents for, and look up a few of the more obscure parts of the law. She was proud, of course, that she was being trusted to do it. But it still meant a lot of work.

Now that dinner had been a bust, she’d need to find a way to make it up to Carl. She knew he would sulk a bit, hoping that she would change her mind. But he’d have to find a way to deal with it.

Maybe she could suggest that he go traveling alone. If it was so important for him to see the world as a backpacker, maybe it could be something he’d like to experience alone.

The thought of a long-distance relationship for a year did give her pause. If she didn’t have the time to go with him, would she have time to make sure that their relationship didn’t just crash and burn when he was away?

Leigh was a bit shocked to realize that she wasn’t sure.

She ran long, slim fingers through her straightened, dark hair that fell past her shoulders. Her whiskey-colored eyes were troubled as she considered her options.

It would be unfair to expect Carl to put his life and his dreams on hold for her, just as it was unfair of Carl to ask her to let her own dream slide back a few steps for him.

It occurred to Leigh that this whole trip was beginning to seem like something she had to do for him, not something they looked forward to doing together.

Well, standing there and brooding wasn’t going to help. She needed to get some sleep.

When she walked to the bedroom after making sure that everything was locked up, and changed into her comfortable old cotton pajamas, she didn’t make a sound.

Carl was already asleep. She was glad. He had been working hard, and he needed the sleep.

Besides, she really didn’t want to argue again.

Leigh stretched out beside him and pulled the blanket over herself.

They could deal with it in the morning. It’s not like lying awake at night, worrying, ever helped anybody.

So Leigh set it aside and slept, but she didn’t sleep well. That was becoming too common, happening far too often, too.

*****

Harrison hated to admit it. But it had to be faced.

He was bored.

There was no challenge in it anymore. It was just too easy.

Of course, he thought with a wry grin, a couple of years ago, he would’ve been thrilled to have things easy. Things had been quite difficult then.

But now that he had that success that had seemed so elusive for a while, he wasn’t too fussed about it, except that he was bored.

Of course, he could work on something new. There were always ideas, and acquisitions, which was the way most entrepreneurs who really made it big seemed to go.

He’d never really thought that his gaming app would take off when he’d been having fun with it. It had just been fun. But then, he had uploaded it, and it had exploded.

When his head stopped spinning, he’d found himself at the head of an empire. So now, at twenty-nine, he found that he could buy whatever he wanted, and most things were available for the right price.

He was disillusioned.

The one thing that he had wanted for a very long time, though, was still not his, and no amount of money could give him that.

Harrison brushed the thought from his mind, and pushed it firmly away.

What he needed was some kind of entertainment to keep him occupied, to make sure that he didn’t start brooding.

Things never went well when Harrison started brooding.