The Husband She Couldn't Forget

“Was I supposed to lie?”

She saw the confused look on his face. Bless his heart, he really didn’t know social rules. “No, you’re not supposed to lie, but you’re not supposed to say everything you think, either.”

He towered above her by more than half a foot.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“I get what you’re saying. Shelby perspires like a man and some of the guys joke about it in the locker room. I’m not going to tell her.”

Melanie laughed. “Good example. Don’t ever tell her. Now let’s go?”

Rolland stepped outside and Melanie closed her door behind them. She pushed her sunglasses in place before joining Rolland and heading out into the sunny and breezy day.

“I love the color of your hair.” He let his palm touch the spikes and smiled down at her.

“Thank you, Rolland. Now, you know north, south, east, west, right?”

He stopped at the intersecting sidewalk and shook his head. “The cafeteria is blue. The dorms are brick red. The gym roof is orange and rehab center is white. The administration offices are beige. If north isn’t a color, you have to tell me where it is.”

Even though she had on her sunglasses, Melanie had to lean backward to use her hand to shade her eyes because Rolland was so tall. “Okay, this is a compass. North faces the sun. Anywhere in the world. North always faces the sun.” She showed him the compass in her hand and looked at his, but they weren’t reading the same.

“Hold on a second.” She took his and shook it. “Yours is broken.”

“You trying to get me lost already?”

“No,” she said, banging on the instrument. She stopped hitting it. “Rolland, don’t follow my bad example. Hitting something never makes it work.”

He laughed. “If you say so. We’ll just have to use yours.”

“Okay,” she said, more softly than she intended. Clearing her throat, she held her compass out and the needle pointed north. “We’re facing north. Behind us is south. To our left is west and to our right is east. Okay, let’s walk west. Which way is west, Rolland?”

“Right,” he said and stepped on her foot.

“No,” she yelled too late.

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean that. Okay, let’s try it again. West is left and we’re going left,” he sang and walked to his right.

Melanie screamed when he stepped on her foot the second time.

Rolland jumped, and she slammed her hand over her mouth.

Neither of them moved.

Other people around them stopped and Melanie waved them away. She was going to recover.

“You scared me,” he said.

“You hurt me.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, Rolland. I’m sorry for scaring you.” She reached out but didn’t touch him. “Let’s try tomorrow. I’ve got an idea of how we can get this perfect tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, not looking at her.

“I’m fine, Rolland, really.”

“Don’t lie to me, Melanie. If you lie, I can’t trust you.”

“I’m not lying. I promise.”

“Yes, you are. Your toes are bleeding,” he said, and walked away.

She saw that they were and wished she could take back the words.

Chapter Three

Rolland sat outside his dorm, sunset streaking the sky in blues and mauve. He looked at the book in his hand to verify the color he was witnessing. Yes, it was mauve. Left of pink and right of rose, it was beautiful and calming. He leaned his head back and let the breeze dust his neck in coolness before he sat back up and looked straight at Melanie Wysh.

“Melanie.”

“I owe you an apology, Rolland. May I sit down?”

He moved over on the swing and made room for her. “Do you like to swing?” he asked, pushing it with his foot.

“I do. I haven’t in a long time,” she told him. “I have something to say.”

“Then you have to swing for a few minutes. You’ll enjoy it. Put your head back like this.”

Rolland pulled Melanie’s head back just as a happy breeze floated by.

They sat this way for a few minutes and it gave him time to study Melanie undisturbed. She was a tiny woman, no more than a hundred and fifteen pounds, and if she was five three, he was being generous. Her hair was short, freshly cut with auburn/reddish highlights that looked cute with her eye color.

She was a pretty woman, a classy woman, someone he wished had known him long ago. She had kissable lips like the women on TV, but Melanie was real. She was someone he could see himself coming home to and having dinner with.

“Why did you come see me?” he asked her.

She seemed embarrassed to have been caught relaxing. She straightened her spine and folded her hands. “I came to apologize for lying to you earlier. I did it because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings—”

Rolland let her drift off, his mouth pursed. “I didn’t cut you off,” he said, laughing.

“I know you didn’t,” she jumped in, hurriedly, then laughed. “I just mean to say that it was easier to say I wasn’t hurt so that we could get to the greater goal of you learning which way west is.”

He gazed at her out of the corner of his eye. “Okay.”

“Do you understand anything I’ve just said?”

“Yes. So it’s better to lie than to tell you you’ve confused the hell out of me.”