A short story about a man meeting his ex-wife for the first time after many years. The story revolves around the aftermath of an international rugby match and the title is a little play on words. If you don't know what rugby is check out some videos on the internet. It is an awesome and at times brutal sport. Again there is some reconciliation involved or was it indifference, I wrote but I am not sure.
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"Mum!" my son, Jacob, cried happily as he pushed past me and his way through the throng of parents and VIPs. I saw him wrap his large frame around somebody. There were a few clicks of cameras pointing in his direction and well they should.
My boy had made his winning debut for his country, a try and the Man of the Match award. As debuts go, it couldn't have gone better. Up to this point, I was bursting with pride. To be honest, I had been bursting with pride since he was offered his first professional rugby contract. All those early mornings and all those miles in the car going to training and matches felt worthwhile. At the time, I was sick to the teeth of it, playing chauffeur to a teenage wannabe rugby player. It is natural to feel this way. A few young players always fall to the wayside because their parents can't cope. Not me and not my son, an international rugby union player!
He had always been a big lad. He didn't get it from my side of the family. That was his mother's. Her father, before he died of a heart attack, was huge and a keen amateur rugby player. His uncle was a big semi-pro second row. I only got into rugby when I married Jacob's mother. I suppose, given his mother's family, it was only natural Jacob played rugby. He was a bit of a handful as a little boy, and rugby and his coaches instilled a sense of discipline in him that I never could.
Jacob released his mother and turned to face me. His joyous expression turned to one of nerves. A nervousness he never exposed in the build-up to the game. I could feel myself tense up and the woman standing next to me looked confused as Jacob and his mum approached.
Jacob's mum wasn't my wife. The woman standing next to me was. She had been my wife for eight years. She is an amazing woman. She never complained about playing second fiddle to Jacob's rugby. I was now in the process of making it up to her. I hadn't seen Jacob's mum in just over ten years.
Jacob's mum, Vivian, would what you would call a blonde bombshell of a woman. She always kept herself in shape, with large breasts, dressed well, and had a vivacious and flirtatious personality. She had always turned heads wherever she went. Today was no different. I could tell the men in the room, especially the press, were wondering who Jacob's mother was.
I wrapped an arm reassuringly around my wife's waist. She never got this attention from the press, and I could feel her comparing herself to Vivian. I intended to tell her later that between her and Vivian, the choice was easy. I would choose my wife every time. Vivian with her looks was the woman men dream about, but my wife was the woman who men only realise afterwards who they need as a wife.
As Vivian got closer, I could see that she looked older. Lines were around her eyes. I hadn't seen her since the divorce. I hadn't spoken to directly her since she left me for her lover.
"We're in love," is what she told me. "We're soulmates," she said driving her dagger through my heart further.
I knew about her affair. Her lover, Henry, was a major sponsor of Jacob's rugby club when he was a junior player before he got scouted by Northampton. Jacob's uncle, Vivian's younger brother played for the men's first time but was coming to the end of his playing career at the time. Vivian and the man she would leave me for must have met on one of the few occasions she watched her brother play. She would have been able to get into the sponsor's lounge because of him. I wasn't with her that day. Maybe I was at a tournament with Jacob, I don't know, but Vivian's behaviour changed after that.
She started going out with her friends more, dressed up to the nines and didn't come home until well past midnight. When she eventually did come home, she would always shower. Her phone became her prized possession. She never left it out of her sight and would stay downstairs sending messages until late into the night. She then would start arguments over nothing. She would belittle everything about me.
She probably thought she was being clever, but I knew early on something wasn't right. Our sex life dwindled and she became less than enthusiastic. With her late-night excursions with her friends, showering at odd times, and secretive messaging, you didn't have to be Einstein to work it out.
It was all classic cheating behaviour. That is what I found out when I went online for answers.
It was bad enough to do this to me, but it was affecting Jacob, so it had to stop. I managed to get hold of her phone and found all her messages to Henry, hidden under Henriette (Work). Of all Vivian's qualities, imagination wasn't one of them. Their messages sickened me, and they included nudes.
I confronted Vivian and of course, she was remorseful, she cried, she apologised, and she promised to finish with Henry.
Things then got better. I didn't want to divorce. I didn't want Jacob to grow up in a broken home like I did so I upped my game. I worked harder. We went to marriage counselling. Vivian began to constantly say, "I love you," to me, message sweet nothings to me, and buy my gifts. Our sex life improved and she became a more enthusiastic lover.
Love bombing they call it and just when I thought we were back to how we were, it all stopped. I just knew in my heart she had started seeing Henry again or she never stopped. She never stopped messaging Henry; she just got a new phone. I wasn't looking for it. Vivian forgot to put it on mute, and I heard it ping. I opened the drawer on her bedside table and found it. Vivian saw me with it and knew the game was up. After the, "We're in love," and "We're soulmates," I just looked her in the eye and told her we were done, and she needed to pack a suitcase and leave. She could go and live with her parents, brother or even Henry for all I cared. The funny thing was that I wasn't upset, I was just disappointed. Disappointed that the woman I thought I married wasn't the woman I was married to.
I pushed through the divorce quickly and because Vivian was still in the affair fog and was living in Henry's large and luxurious house, living the life I suppose she wanted, she gave me everything we had built together in our marriage.
After two years of therapy, I got through the other side. Then I met Sara, my wife, the woman who would become the love of my life. She was the woman who taught me what real love was.
From the day Vivian left I hadn't spoken to her unless it involved Jacob. Jacob was showered with gifts from Vivian and Henry. Henry promised Jacob would play for the men's first team one day. Jacob of course at a young age drank it up and thought Henry was "awesome," as he put it. I had kept the full horrors of what caused my and Vivian's marriage to fail from my son. So, Jacob was blissfully unaware that Henry was a snake and it felt like I was losing Jacob to Henry.
Then Jacob got scouted by Northampton and was given an offer to join their professional set-up. Henry and Vivian tried hard to persuade Jacob not to accept it. Jacob was confused. He couldn't understand why Henry and his mum would try and stop him from pursuing his dream. I could see he was struggling with the decision.
It was then I told him the truth about his mum and Henry. I told him opportunities like he had been given come once in a lifetime and he needed to take it. The Northampton scouts must have liked Jacob a lot because when they heard he was wavering, they worked hard to get him to join them. They thought they were competing against another professional team. Instead, it was a snake who feared he was losing control over Jacob. With relief, Jacob listened to me, the Northampton scouts, and the Northampton first-team coach, who astounded me with a call. A debut at eighteen for Northampton led to being called up to the England Under 20 team and now today his, full international debut. It was a true meteoric rise.
When Jacob heard the truth, and his mum inadvertently confirmed it, he cut Henry out of his life. Both Vivian and Henry were furious. I took some satisfaction from that—satisfaction from saving Jacob from being under their control.
"Hello, Vivian," I said tersely to my ex-wife. "This is Sara, my wife," Introducing mother to stepmother. "Sara, this is Vivian, Jacob's mother." I wasn't going to make a scene; this was Jacob's day.
