Chapter 5
5
M el was tired of sitting on the chaise with her laptop, so she planned to walk down to the pier and work at one of the picnic tables. The summer was nearly half over, and each girl had wonderful romantic adventures. They celebrated their mid-life crisis and assumed Mel was immune because she was married. That wasn’t exactly the case because she didn’t feel any type of mid-life crisis, but she was afraid her husband Dale was.
He hadn’t come to a visit nearly as much as she had hoped. Was he bored with her and going out to meet exciting new people? Mel had never thought of Dale as someone who would stray, but what if he had changed his ways?
April popped out on the deck. “Mel, don’t you think it’s about time you close your laptop and enjoy the summer? You took some time off, didn't you?"
“I’m mostly working from home like I did during Covid. I have someone covering if something urgent comes up, but since I’m a department head, it’s nearly impossible to take the summer off,” Mel said. “Most of my employees take their well-deserved vacations in the summer, so we’re already short-handed.”
“I’m not around as much as Deb and Tabitha, but you seem quiet, and you’ve been like this for a while. Is something going on that we don’t know about?" April asked.
Mel panicked inside because she didn’t know if she could talk about her marital worries without breaking out in tears. If she were going to open up to anyone, maybe April was the best since she hardly knew Dale.
Mel nodded and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m taking a walk towards the pier. Care to walk with me?”
“Absolutely. I’ll grab some cups with lids, and we can sip coffee there. Kylen and Carmine won’t return for a few hours, and I have time to spare.”
Mel and April walked to the historic Melbourne Beach Pier. Along the way, Mel explained her concerns regarding her marriage. She wondered if Dale’s absence meant he was enjoying his alone time more than the time he would spend with her.
“I’ve seen the two of you together only a handful of times, and you seem happy, but many couples look happy. Take Greg and Tabitha, for example. I could tell something wasn’t right for at least five years. You’ve been away for a month and Dale came down for the Fourth. What has it been like for the past five years?” April asked.
“It’s been blissful. The kids left for college, and we started to get excited about the future. We both make enough money to retire early and then we’re going to travel a lot. Dale described the late fifties as the sweet spot where we’re young enough to appreciate traveling and not having to enjoy it while we’re pushing walkers. When we hit seventy, there will probably be grandchildren, and I might write a book,” Mel explained.
“Dale wouldn’t dream that life and throw it away in a month. You’ve seen the three of us having romantic interludes, and that has messed with your head. Tabitha told me that you weren’t clingy and had absolute trust in each other. Believe in that and when you get together with Dale, the two of you should discuss it.”
“You’re right. I need to be confident in what I have. I haven’t questioned it in over twenty-five years, and I don’t know why it’s an issue now. I think I’m jealous of what you all have,” Mel said.
"Deb, Tabitha and I wish we had what you have. A stable life with a man who we love and loves us back is a dream. The grass is always greener, and I’m sure Dale wants you to use this time to have fun with the girls and not worry about him,” April said.
“I’m so glad I spoke with you. You make too much sense, and I can’t think of a good argument against anything you said.”
“Are you excited to see Kylen and Carmine?” Mel asked.
“I am, but I’ve been video chatting and talking to them so much that it’s like I was on the trip, too. I should have taken the time before I dragged Kylen into this situation I have going with Carmine,” April said.
“I’m pretty sure that it’s too late for that. I have to give you props for raising a boy alone. Carson was tough from when he was thirteen until his sixteenth year. Dale handled the discipline with him when I couldn’t do it anymore. It all worked out in the end, and now father and son are best friends. Quinnie was a breeze until she was fifteen, and then she needed a lot of supervision. Social media affected her a lot more than it did Carson.”
“Was there a lot of bullying?” April asked. “Kylen was angered by it and nearly joined a gang. People think of gangs in New York or L.A., but it’s becoming a huge problem in Tampa. He was looking for protection, and they offered it.
“I worked with a nurse at the hospital who had been in a gang and had to work hard to get where he was. He said the worst part was that his mother died before she saw what he had done. He spent a lot of time with my son. He also knew a guy still in the gang, and he asked them to lay off Kylen.”
“Oh, boy. Weren’t there times you felt like the only person on earth going through that?” Mel asked.
“Yes, but look at us now. Your son is in college, and mine is college-bound. We managed to do something right. Is that Tabitha over there with Winston?” April asked. “I thought she was still sleeping and not out here painting the morning sky.”
“It is her. I’m glad to see she’s exploring her creative side and that she made a friend. I would have hated it if the only thing she got out of her sabbatical was a broken heart. I doubted he was just in it for the friendship, but he is. He’s in love with an Italian painter, and she’s been giving him tips while he listens to her woes about Marcus. I have a couple of male friends that I met through work that I cherish.”
“I’m going to leave them alone because I know painting the sky as it changes is a real timing thing. Are you good now?” April asked.
“Much better. Talking it through helped so much. Would you mind taking my computer back to the house? I’m going to walk on the beach,” Mel said.
Mel walked down the pier and knew Dale would be in his office by now, so she dialed his number. Coverage wasn’t great on the beach, so didn’t make a video call as it would just keep getting dropped. Dale answered the call, and it sounded like he was out of breath. Mel heard laughter and a door slam.
"Hi, sweetie. It’s early, and I would expect you’d just be turning over in bed. I know how you sleep so well with the salt air flowing in the window,” Dale said.
“I took a walk to the pier with April. We had a great talk, and now I’m walking on the beach. I thought I heard laughter. Is someone there, or maybe you aren’t home? I just assumed.”
“No, I’m home. I’m going over legal briefs, and I had the television on, so that must have been it. I miss you. Having the house all to myself with no one to tell me what to do is overrated. For a day, I left my cereal bowl out with milk still in it. You’re always telling me to put it in the sink at least, and after I passed it twice, I put it in the sink. You were right. It is gross,” Dale said. “I thought I was doing the right thing by watering the plants. I guess I didn’t have to do it every day. I killed most of them, but I promise to have them replaced by the time you come home.”
“I don’t blame you. I do stuff around the house without thinking and believe me, I learned through trial and error. My mother was hardly a domestic goddess, and we had a cleaning person in every other week. I forgive you for killing my plants.”
“Was there a reason for your call other than that you love me?” Dale asked.
“Isn’t that enough?” Mel asked.
“Of course, it is. I want you to spend more time enjoying yourself and less time fretting about me. I’m fine, and the house is fine. Not like when you’re around because I’ve come to realize you’re the injector of joy around this place, and without you, it’s a house and not a home,” Dale said. “You’re lucky because I almost bought a puppy.”
“No. We talked about that and decided to wait until after we travel. We’ll get a poodle or something small because it’s easier to manage as we age,” Mel explained. “I’m not going to travel with a pet since I’m always forgetting something and don’t want it to be Fido.”
“Don’t worry. I said I almost got a puppy but then remembered our decision. We do have to talk about the breed since I can’t picture myself owning a lap dog.”
“We’ll see,” Mel said.
“Those are your favorite words. I remember hearing them when Quinnie and Carson were little,” Dale said.
Was Mel henpecking him? She didn’t mean to and had to remember that Dale was her partner and not her minion.
“I don’t mean to tell you what to do. I rely on you to call me on it when you do,” Mel said. Listening to herself, she sounded like someone who was newly married.
“I do. We’ve never had a problem with that, and you know it,” Dale said. “I have a client coming by, and he just got here, so I have to go, but I’ll call you tonight.”
“Okay. I love you and have a good day meeting with your client.”
Mel hung up. She had never received a distant feeling like that from Dale. He seemed distracted, and he was saying things that didn’t make sense. He didn’t have a television in his office, so that wasn’t where the sound came from unless he watched something on his computer. Dale was hyper-focused on work in his office, so that was doubtful. It was also odd that he was meeting a client in his home office, which he never did. NASA had beautiful law offices, and he preferred to meet clients there. It was more professional, and he didn’t like bringing single clients to his home. It was a good way to start rumors.
Something was up with Dale, and now Mel had to work up the courage to confront him. The water splashed her ankles as she walked, and she wished he was by her side.