Free Two for Kate by Lola Wilder

One
     
    Kate had been waiting for her husband David at Zingerman’s Deli,
their favorite lunch spot in Ann Arbor, for almost an hour. She checked her
phone to make sure he hadn't texted her but when she realized there were no messages,
she shook her head and tossed aside her napkin.  I knew this was a
mistake, she thought to herself.
    She was surprised when he had actually accepted her invitation to
lunch, but now she wished she hadn't even bothered. It was bad enough she’d had
to make a date to see him, and now the fact that he was obviously standing her
up made her feel even worse. 
    Just as she pushed back her chair and moved to leave, she saw him
come barreling through the crowd.  He nearly knocked over a waiter, who was
forced to side-step David's massive physique just to avoid spilling an entire
tray of food on the patio. Kate settled
back in her chair, almost breathing a sigh of relief, but when she saw the look
on his face, her stomach tightened.
    "I thought you might not be coming," she said in a
hushed voice, trying to avoid a scene.
    "I said I would meet you, didn't I?" 
    Kate swallowed hard, trying not to notice the people at the next
table studying them. "I know it's just...never mind. You're here now.  That's
all that matters." 
    She clenched her lips together, watching him snatch up the menu
and quickly scan the options. While other couples in the trendy restaurant
laughed and chatted with one another, it only made the divide between them more
obvious.  What was perhaps the most uncomfortable for her was that no
matter how awkward things got between them, Kate still felt desire for him.
Even now, the faint scent of his cologne wafted across the table, and it
stirred something deep within. When he licked his lips before taking a drink of
his ice-cold water, she wanted to be the one to reach across the table and wipe
the droplets of water away. She longed for his deep blue eyes to look at her
with as much attention as he was now giving the menu. But when he looked up at
her, and his expression didn't change, and she realized just how unimportant
she was to him these days, it made her stomach sink.
    She smiled over at the couple sitting at the next table in some
sort of attempt to reassure them that they weren’t really having an
argument.  She glanced back at David to find him staring at her. For a
brief moment, she held a glimmer of hope and her pulse quickened, thinking that
maybe he’d sensed her desire. However, when she noticed how his jaw twitched
with tension, she knew that desire was the last emotion that he felt for her
right now, and that realistically she should prepare herself for some sort of
confrontation instead.
    Sensing her defensiveness but wanting to state the obvious, David
distractedly took another sip of water and plunked the glass back down on the
table. "I still think this is a bad idea. We shouldn't be throwing our
money away on frivolities like lunch at this over-priced restaurant."
                When had Zingerman’s stopped being our place
and started being just some over-priced deli?
    Not wanting to start a fight, Kate nodded and gave him another
polite smile. "I know," she said, speaking quietly in the hopes that
it would clue David into the fact that people were watching them. "I just
thought it would be nice to get out of the station for a while. You've been
working so many late nights..."
    David had been a firefighter for the past seven years, and lately
had been working close to eighty hours a week.  He picked up shifts every
chance he got, which often left Kate at home with not much to think about other
than her growing dissatisfaction with her marriage.
    "Yeah, well, I don't have much of a choice now, do I?"
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a stack of mail, which he held
up to show her.
    "What's that?"
    "A notice from the bank. We're late on our mortgage payment.
Again." He tossed it down, clenching his fist on the table. "I...I
just