ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine April 2015 | Page 44

little noses and fingers. I chuckled at the gesture.
They were just as anxious as I was to see Ashley. I
paused for a moment to wipe the smudges off the
glass with the sleeve of my sweater before leaving the
frigid confines of the sun porch behind and gladly
embracing the cozy interior.
“Ah, hun!” Marcus called from the kitchen. “We’re
out of Bailey’s!”
“Aww, now that’s a shame,” I said as I entered the
room and took a seat at the kitchen table, my fingers
drumming the surface impatiently.
“Relax Emily. She’ll be home soon. Let her have her
time with her dad.” He set two steaming mugs of
coffee on the table, providing me with a welcome
distraction.
Marcus was right of course, but John, my ex-husband,
had always lacked a sense of responsibility. He could
never seem to understand that there were obligations
that needed to be taken care of and some of them
needed to be done in a timely manner. Yes, I was a bit
obsessive compulsive but I preferred structure and
organization to the disorder and confusion that had
haunted the duration of our marriage.
For the duration of my short marriage to John, I had
been the one who financially supported the three of
us and that was usually on whatever job I could find.
I often found myself working two or three part time
jobs just to keep our family ahead of the game.
The ex-husband wasn’t entirely useless though, he
would work occasionally. Unfortunately, it was usually
only long enough to be laid off and collect
Employment Insurance benefits. When the benefits
ran out, we would struggle again for months. It was
only after he eventually tired of my constant bitching
that he would tear himself away from his computer
games long enough to work another half-assed job
and the cycle would begin again.
Eventually I had decided that enough was enough and
left the marriage. It was much easier to support two
of us, Ashley and I, than it had been to support three
of us. When Marcus came into our lives and I felt
like my life had meaning again. The struggles of the
years gone past had taught me to be truly grateful for
everything. We had the twins, Liam and Laken, who
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were now five and Ashley was growing up to be a fine
young woman. Life was comfortable but not
privileged, our home and possessions comfortable but
modest.
John, or the Ex as I preferred to call him, had moved
on as well and appeared to have changed his irresponsible ways. He’d also remarried and they had a
daughter that was a year or so younger than the twins.
They lived somewhere in the countryside and enjoyed
a simple lifestyle in a small, quiet rural home.
There were times late at night, when I struggled with
insomnia and my mind aimlessly drifted through the
events of the past. It was frustrating to think that he
couldn’t have been a more responsible partner during
our own marriage and I always wondered why
everything had unfolded the way it did. Even though
I was far happier now with Marcus than I’d ever been
with John, it was always this one thought that
hounded my sleepless nights. There were times when
I found it difficult to let go of the past.
There were never easy answers when I reflected on
my life with John, there were only more questions.
We were very young when we became parents. It had
been an unexpected development that had unfolded
in our last year of high school and wanting to do the
right thing, we married immediately. Looking back on
those moments, I recognized that we were simply too
young and inexperienced to fully grasp the binding
nature of what we’d entered into.
I often struggled to remind myself to not look back
with regret. I’d learned all I needed to from the past,
garnering a wealth of wisdom and knowledge from
the experiences of the endless struggles we’d been
through. Life’s lessons weren’t always easy but we
endured and moved on to embrace new opportunities.
Here we were and life was good. I had a mug of hot
coffee but alas, no Bailey’s. I smiled to myself. Yes,
life was good.
The front door slammed and jolted me from my
musings. Marcus smiled at me from across the table,
winking with an ‘I told you so’ look. The twins were
up and running, delighted to see their big sister.
“I’m home!” Ashley called out, her weekend bag