Everything Ends

After crying for almost an hour, Alicia got up, wiped her tears and started making lunch. When she and Gabriel got married, he promised that he would always make time to have lunch with her. For years he kept his promise, but 6 months ago he always said he had a work meeting. Still, she thought he would go to lunch that day because maybe he had regretted what happened the night before. She still held out hope. When she finished making lunch, she waited for him to arrive, but he never did, so she ended up eating lunch alone. When she finished, she picked up the plates and then went back to her room and lay down on the bed to wait for it to be time to go pick up her daughter from school. Lost in her memories, one of her husband popped into her mind.

“Will you marry me?”

Gabriel asked Alicia with a big smile on his face.

“Yes, love, of course I will!”

Gabriel placed the ring on Alicia’s finger. The engagement was sealed with a kiss.

—We'll get married as soon as possible.

Gabriel said, causing Alicia to think for a moment, since she was surprised that Gabriel wanted to get married right away, since they were still young; they were barely 19 years old; she thought they would wait a little longer, however, she didn't care, because she loved him.

—It's okay, love.

Alicia said, in love.

Riiinggg...

The same table clock rang from the morning; it was time to go get her daughter from school. She wiped the tears that had come out of her sad eyes again, got up, but before she could take the keys to the house, her cell phone rang.

—Hello? Gabriel?

Alicia answered.

—Yes, it's me, I wanted to know if we can talk today.

Gabriel asked; Alicia sighed with happiness; many ideas crossed her thoughts: "Maybe he already regretted it."

—Yes, of course I will, I'll wait for you tonight, love.

—OK, then see you tonight.

Gabriel answered; Alicia was very happy, since he didn't correct her when he said "love" to her; and that gave her hope. She took her cell phone again and called her mother-in-law; she was her husband's mother, but she considered her as her own. She was always very sweet to her. From the moment she got married, they had a relationship of trust and love; Celeste was always like that with her.

— Mom?

Alicia asked through the phone.

—Daughter, how are you? What happened?

Celeste asked.

—I'm very well, mom, could I ask you a favor?

—Yes, daughter, tell me.

—Could you pick up April from school today? She leaves in 20 minutes, and could I stay with you tonight?

Alicia waited for Celeste's answer.

—Yes, daughter, no problem; I imagine that you and my son will have a romantic date.

Alicia was surprised, since her mother-in-law did not know anything about the problems with her son. That gave her more hope, since Gabriel told his mother everything and he had not spoken to her about a possible divorce.

—Yes, mom, I want to make him a romantic dinner.

Alicia answered happily.

—Ok, then I will go for April. Don't worry, enjoy the night, daughter, I love you. Kisses.

—Yes, mom, thank you, I love you too. Give April a kiss from me. Bye.

— Bye.

She said goodbye to Celeste. Alicia, excited, went to the supermarket to buy what she would make for dinner. She was thinking of making spaghetti bolognese, Gabriel's favorite food, so when she got home she set about preparing dinner with great enthusiasm and, once it was ready, she prepared to take a long bath. She dressed in a black nightgown that she had in her underwear; it had been a long time since she had dressed like that. She remembered one night when she put it on to surprise her husband, but he stopped her and said:

"That kind of clothing doesn't fit you anymore, you don't look like it used to, your body doesn't match that lingerie anymore; why don't you wear something else?"

From that day on she didn't wear anything like that again, but she didn't care anyway; she put it on, put a black dress over it and put on a little makeup, since she wasn't used to doing that. The clock said 8:00 at night; when she heard the keys, the door opened. It was Gabriel.

"Gabriel, Love, you're here!"

She lunged at him to kiss him, but he pulled away.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

Gabriel asked coldly.

“For you, love, you said we would talk, I imagine it's to fix things. I don't care what you said yesterday, I don't care about anything, I just want to be with you.”

“Ouch! 'Al' I told you I wanted to talk to you, but it was about the divorce.”

Gabriel said angrily and, after searching inside his briefcase, he took out some documents and handed them to Alicia.

“What is this? Divorce papers? We just talked about this yesterday, how come you already have the documents ready? I know that this year we have been arguing a little more than usual and we have been distant; well, you have been like this. But to get to the point of getting divorced?”

“I told you that I had already thought about it before.

Alicia gently bit her lower lip.

“So you are with someone else? I thought you were just saying that to annoy me, to get me to move away.”

“Yes, I am with someone else.”

Gabriel answered. Alicia began to cry, unable to hold back her tears of pain.

“You didn't answer yesterday, but… Since when?”

Alice asked.

“Why do you want to know? Let's leave it at that.”

Gabriel said. Alicia was devastated, but she wanted to know since when he no longer loved her, she remembered some things he did to her, like not having lunch with her anymore, arriving late and only sleeping, also he no longer touched her the same, even the last time they were together had been 5 months ago, that night she approached him and kissed him, but he didn't respond, she kissed his neck, but he didn't make any move, Alicia placed herself on top of him to kiss him, but Gabriel took her by the arms taking her off his body and turned his back to her with absolute coldness; Alicia had been shocked, so she turned around just like Gabriel, but when the tears were about to start coming out she felt a tug on her arm, being face to face with him, Gabriel apologized and then kissed her, but it was not the kiss she wanted, this one was cold, absent, sad; He caressed her, but those caresses felt forced, but Alicia needed him, so she didn't care, in the end he made her his and when he finished he turned around and didn't look at her again the whole night. From that night on he didn't touch her anymore; even if she approached him, there was always a rejection. She tried to convince herself that it was all about the stress of work, but finally she realized that she was only lying to herself.

— Tell me, Gabriel, please, I need to know.

Alicia said as her tears fell. There was silence until Gabriel broke it.

—7 months.

Gabriel answered without a hint of remorse or consideration for who had been his wife for many years; Alicia couldn't contain herself and began to cry even more while holding the divorce papers.

—I've already told you, now, are you going to sign the papers for me? Don't worry, in April she will be with you; we will have shared custody. I'll take care of her expenses, there's no problem with that; I don't want her to see her parents fighting.

Alicia, still not assimilating what she was hearing, didn't answer. Gabriel walked to his bedroom, took his suitcases and began to put clothes along with all his belongings. After a while he finished packing everything. Gabriel put the suitcases in his car; Alicia usually took the bus because Gabriel never taught her how to drive, since he thought she would crash it. He didn't trust him or had the patience to teach him.

—"Al." I'm leaving, are you going to sign?

Alicia searched through her things to finally find a pen, put the divorce papers on the table and, with much hesitation, began to sign while tears fell on the document.

—Ready! I've signed it, go now!

Alicia had the desire to throw herself at his feet and ask him not to leave, but she held back the urge.

—Well, Alicia, I hope everything goes well for you; we'll talk about anything with the girl.

Gabriel closed the door behind him; Alice continued to cry. He had always called her "Al" affectionately, ever since she started receiving those love letters, calling her "Al" and signing himself as her admirer. Now she was simply "Alice"? As if by signing that, everything between them had ended. She ran to her room, where she threw herself on the bed and cried all night until sleep overtook her.