Chapter 3
How will she deal with the guilt?
--------- Jackson --------
I tried desperately not to fall asleep before she came back from the bathroom. I slapped my face a few times trying to stay awake but she was taking forever. I would have naturally wanted to fall into a deep sleep after sex like that which drained so much out of me. Combined with the fact that I had been up for over 24 hours and I wanted to fall into a good 14-hour coma. I looked over at the clock. It had been over 10 minutes and I got a little worried. I somehow managed to crawl out of the bed, walked over to the bathroom and knocked, asking if she was ok. I got a muffled response that said that she was fine. I didn't believe her.
Her face registered shocked surprise as I walked into the bathroom and found her sitting on the toilet, face in her hands.
"Hey! I'm peeing!"
"I heard you finish peeing five minutes ago," I said, spreading her legs and kneeling on the cold floor in front of her. "Now you're sitting here feeling guilty, regretting what we did." She tried to smile at me reassuringly but it was a sad smile.
"Am I that obvious?"
"You're a good woman, Orkideh, and you don't strike me as the kind of woman who would cheat on the man she loves."
"Yet here I am," she said, taking my face into her hands. She looked deep into my eyes and I saw a mix of emotions play across her face. "I don't regret what we did," she said finally, "but yes, I do feel incredibly guilty. Brian has been really good to me and I do love him. He didn't deserve this."
"No one deserves this," I interjected, "but something really special happened between us today, Orkideh. I couldn't bring myself to go get on my plane without saying goodbye. By the time I was dropping you off at your hotel after dinner I was aching to take you in my arms and kiss you... kiss you until our lips got sore. That ache would have remained like a weight in my chest, haunting me for the rest of my life if we hadn't done this," I told her, kissing the inside of her palm that was caressing my face.
"I think I would have felt the same way, too. But now I fear I'm going to live with this guilt for the rest of my life. My problem is that I don't know which is worse -- living with the loss I would have felt if we didn't get together, or living with the guilt because we did."
"You can't think like that," I told her. "You have to think of this moment as separated in time from the rest of your life. Look, I know I have you on borrowed time and that you've made a commitment to another man. I know that in a few hours you will get on a plane and I will be a part of your past. It hurts but I've made peace with that. But you know what Brian deserves? Instead of concentrating on the guilt, concentrate on being a good wife to him. Be the best wife to him you can possibly be. Love him, honor him, and when he's at the end of his life let him look back on the life that you two have shared and be happy. He deserves that more than your guilt. It's what I would want."
"Yeah, but I'll be living a lie. Is that what you would really want, a wife who was living a lie?"
"If you love him, yeah. The lie is your problem, not his. If I was in your fiancΓ©'s shoes and you still loved me and wanted to spend your life with me, I wouldn't want to know. Now, of course I wouldn't want you cheating on me. But I wouldn't want one night of infidelity to prevent me from having a lifetime of happiness. So if after tonight you are sure that you can love him and be faithful then swallow your guilt and just be the best wife that you can be."
She put her face in her hands and sighed. "What you say makes sense," she said, looking at me with blood-shot eyes, "but it feels like a pretty self-serving way to deal with it."
"I'm just telling you the truth about how I feel, having had a few years to think about such things. Would I want a faithful wife? Of course. Would I want a truthful wife? For the most part, yes. But there are many truths that we often don't want to hear. When I'm dating someone new I don't want to know details of her sexual past. That's her personal business and I don't want to know. As far as this one instance of infidelity, if I had my choice I would prefer a life of happiness never knowing that you had been unfaithful because once I know something like that I can't forget. I could never feel completely comfortable with you again, never completely trust you again. It would essentially ruin our relationship. Knowing the truth would make me miserable both with you and without you. So if your love is true, I would prefer that truth over the truth of fidelity or infidelity."
There was a long bout of silence. "That sounds pathetic," she said finally, "and also extremely wise."
"Probably some of both," I chuckled. Her mood seemed to soften then, too.
"I'm really so happy that I met you, Jackson. I will try to take your advice and be a good wife to Brian. But I don't regret what I've shared with you today, I don't regret it at all."
"We still have a few more hours," I said, getting up off of my knees and helping her to her feet.
"Oh God, I'm exhausted! I'm going to pass out before my head hits the pillow. Don't tell me you still have energy left?" she asked incredulously.
"Do me a favor and sleep on the plane tomorrow. I have two more hours of happiness with you, Orkideh. I don't want to spend them asleep."
"Yes, but I would also love to go to sleep snuggled up next to you and wake up in your arms."