Hello readers, welcome back to Romantic Friday Writers. This week's challenge is to write a piece of prose or poetry to the theme 'Greener Pastures.' I've chosen to revise a short story I wrote about 2 years ago. I hope you enjoy this piece of flash fiction.
Word count: 600
Eyes raised, she glanced at
the round brushed aluminium clock on the wall. 8.05pm.
Slowly, a frustrated sigh
whooshed from Abi’s lungs, her earlier excitement fizzing into the humid summer
evening air.
 |
| Dinner for Two |
Her gaze swept across the sturdy oak dining table set for two; flickering candle lights, scattered rose petals, her best porcelain china crockery, laid out to perfection. Dinner—Fillet Mignon with mushrooms and roasted asparagus—warmed in the oven. Tayo’s favourite.
Their last supper?
Rat-tat-tat...She tapped
her gel-coated fingernail tips on the wooden table-top, her rising annoyance
seeping from her body into the table with each strike.
You’ll
chip your nails!
Disregarding the cautious
voice in her head and the fact she’d spent a fortune on a spa manicure and
pedicure, she continued the staccato beats. It wasn’t just her hands and feet
feeling pampered. A new avant-garde haircut from her award-winning stylist, and
a deep-exfoliating facial had her feeling positively revived and ready to face
the challenge of the evening--Friday the 13th. It didn't bode well.
Rising, she walked to the coffee
table in the living room and picked up her mobile phone. After pressing the call
button, it rang for a while before connecting.
“Hello.” It was the same
indifferent response every time.
Like
you don’t know who is on the line, she thought as she
rolled her eyes upwards. Her husband’s phone had caller ID. So Tayo knew it was Abi calling him before he picked his phone.
Most times, she ignored
his mildly annoying habit. Tonight, her tolerance level was very low.
“Tayo, where are you?” she
asked, the irritation in her voice as loud as a church bell’s toll.
“In the office,” he replied,
his resonant voice sounding distracted. “Is there a problem?”
Hell
yeah, there’s a problem! She was ready to shout.
| Woman in iro and buba |
“A good wife never shouts
at her husband.” Her grandmother’s careful wisdom reined in her rash actions. A
vision of the grey-haired woman in her green floral print iro and buba and kind
knowing eyes floated before Abi.
Her skin flushed with
embarrassment as if she’d just had a stinging reprimand. Her eyes lids
fluttered shut briefly. When she lifted them, her gaze focused on the mantelpiece
displaying framed photos of both Tayo and her.
A deep breath passed
through her lungs soothing her raw nerves.
“You promised you’d be
home by seven-thirty tonight. It’s past eight already.”
The calmness of her voice
belied the roiling emotions she wanted to bare. Be a good wife, the voice resounded in her head.
“Oh. I forgot,” he replied
as if he didn’t understand the reason for her annoyance. “We had problems with
one of our projects here and I’ve been trying to sort it out. I’ll be leaving
here in about an hour.”
Words screamed in her
head. No, come home now! She should
say but that would make her hysterical and pathetic. A good wife didn’t complain—didn’t
nag.
“Okay.” Her voice dripped
with nonchalance she didn’t feel. This was yet another broken promise. Another
indication of their marriage adrift in the high sea, rudderless and masterless.
And she was about to jump ship for safe harbour. Greener pastures.
| New York |
He might’ve detected
something in her voice because he asked, “You didn’t prepare anything special,
did you? It’s not our anniversary, right?”
At this point, the impulse
to scream her frustration overwhelmed her. She could no longer restrain the
words that had eaten her up for weeks.
“No...but I have a new job
in New York and I’m going in a month,” she muttered before pressing the end
call button.
***
I hope you enjoyed reading this piece. Please leave me a comment. Remember to hop along and read the other entries for this week's RFW Challenge. Have a great weekend!
