Chapter 12
THE BUTTERFLIES ARE GETTING TIRED
After spending the entire morning in the kitchen, Elena was sitting at the dining room table waiting for her wife, wearing an elegant and alluring red dress.
Her eyes were fixed on the walls, where the candlelight danced and cast shadows that captivated her.
In front of her, the dinner she had prepared remained warm, waiting for Victoria to arrive.
Victoria knew nothing about this surprise, and Elena was eager to see her walk through the door.
It was their first wedding anniversary, a special day, a moment to celebrate the love that had connected them from the very first day they met.
The last few months hadn’t been easy; Victoria spent most of her time at the newspaper, and although Elena didn’t want to make too much of it, deep down she was beginning to feel the butterflies fade, and she wanted to make an effort to keep their relationship from falling apart.
Consumed by the demands of her job as an intern and the expectations of a selfish boss, Victoria was devoting more time to her career than to their marriage.
She was focused on pushing herself further every day, on proving to her boss that she could handle anything, and on gradually carving out a place for herself on the staff.
She was aware that her relationship with Elena couldn’t move forward if she wasn’t present, and every time she let her down, what bound them together broke a little more; but now she couldn’t stop paying attention to work, not when her future depended on it.
While waiting for her wife to arrive, Elena’s mind wandered, traveling through the labyrinth of emotions that tormented her.
She remembered the early days of their relationship, when every moment together seemed imbued with magic, dreams, and promises.
Yet all of that seemed to be fading little by little, giving way to a void that had been making her feel insecure for months.
So much so that she hadn’t even been able to tell Victoria about it.
Breaking the silence around her, her phone alerted her to an incoming message she knew was from Victoria.
It wasn’t the first time plans had fallen apart right before her eyes, that all her effort had come to nothing, and she’d have to go to sleep alone…
so she picked it up and prepared to hear from her:
“Hi, honey, listen… A problem has come up at the newspaper, and my boss has asked us newbies to stay. I don’t know yet how long I’ll be, so don’t wait up for me. I might be here late. I’m so sorry. Get some rest. I love you.”
When the message ended, a deep heaviness sank into Elena’s heart.
All her efforts to make that day special had come to nothing, and the situation was filled with a sadness that overwhelmed her.
She knew her wife was caught up in circumstances beyond her control, but that didn’t ease the pain she felt in that moment, and for the first time, she felt that the magic had faded.
With tears threatening to spill, she got up from the table, blew out the candles, and walked to the bedroom.
Driven by her emotions, she began packing a backpack with four items of clothing, and after changing, she headed to the airport, where she would spend the night until she could catch the first flight to Ibiza.
All she wanted was for her brother to hold her close in his arms and to feel her feet sink into the sand, the sun bathing her skin, and the sea washing everything bad away.
Feeling abandoned and alone, she looked out the window.
The dream she had begun to live when she married Victoria was fading before her eyes, and she couldn’t stay to watch it crumble.
She wondered if they would be able to find their way back to that past filled with happiness, or if this was just the beginning of the end of their beautiful love story.
Maybe she was too selfish, maybe she had become the kind of toxic woman who can’t stand being apart from her partner…
but, in that moment, the distance, the lack of intimacy, the inability to talk and express how she felt were turning into a painful rift through which everything was going to hell.