THE BEGINNING
"If you go... I won't wait for you!"
Even as Kelly Burgess spat out those final words of her latest rant; the extra venom in her voice clearly evident; it did cross her mind if maybe she'd gone too far. But it had needed to be said nastily. Maybe Fred would then realise just how much she was against his plans.
She turned, preparing to stalk out of the living room but then hesitated. There was no reaction. It seemed that her husband wasn't paying any attention to her ranting and raving, a seemingly recurring theme recently.
She'd always admired his seemingly easy going attitude to life, it was one of the things that had attracted her to him in the first place, but now it was one of the things that irritated her the most.
Normally when they had a disagreement she would get her shots in early and then hastily retire, doing anything she could to avoid a prolonged face to face confrontation with him, and therefore any chance of a reasonable discussion. But this time was different. This time there was more at stake.
"Fred... did you hear what I said?" her voice rising, "I mean it... If you go I won't be here when you come back."
Fred Burgess shifted uneasily in his armchair, muting the television with the remote control that had been resting on his lap. He felt his stomach tighten. He'd known this was coming. He too hated the confrontation and was usually too much of a coward to take control of the situation. After many years of marriage he'd learned the best way to pacify his wife when she was as adamant as this was to cave in to her demands. Take the easy way out. But today would be different. He couldn't afford to give way on this and what's more, he wasn't going to.
They'd already skirted around this issue a few weeks previously and any slight hope he'd had that the passing of time would make his wife a bit more reasonable and amenable, had now it seemed, completely and utterly vanished.
"You know our situation Kelly and as things stand, I don't think I've got too many options," he said quietly.
"Of course you have," Kelly retorted, still sparking, "you just haven't tried hard enough. I just don't see why you have to go, that's all. And like I've just said, if you go, I won't wait for you. It'll be over. I won't be here when you come back." She glared at him again and then flounced out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Fred settled back into his chair and sighed. They'd gone over and over this subject several times in the past few weeks without getting anywhere. He'd patiently explained his reasoning but it was like she was in complete denial about the severity of their present situation. Either that or she plain didn't trust him and thought he was lying. He didn't know what else he could say to make her understand. They had a problem and it was a big one.
Out of nowhere and with no warning he'd been made redundant. He like all his colleagues had gone in to work one morning only to be sent home. The firm had gone bust overnight. Recovering from the initial shock had been hard enough but he'd figured he had enough contacts in the business world that he would soon be back working again. But it hadn't worked out like that. Even firms that his friends and relatives worked for were no longer hiring. Everybody seemed to be shedding staff not taking them on.
Unemployed now for over nine months and counting, financially they were close to meltdown and were really starting to struggle. Their lack of money was biting deep and what little savings they had managed to put aside for a rainy day were just about exhausted. That rainy day had turned out to be a persistent deluge and it wouldn't be too long before they would be unable to meet their mortgage payments.
God knows he'd tried hard to find a job. Any job. But there was nothing out there. He'd sent out over a hundred job applications with only a small pitiful handful of interviews being offered in return. He was at his wits end and to make matters worse, he and Kelly were now barely talking. She blamed him for not being able to find work and thought he wasn't putting enough effort into his search for employment.
He felt this was grossly unfair. It seemed that every job he went for he was either under or over qualified for the advertised position, or worse still, had no experience and didn't fit the employee profiling requirement. There was always a feeble reason why not and it was terribly frustrating. He knew there were jobs out there he could do quite easily but it seemed nobody was willing to give him that chance.
And then out of the blue he'd got the chance to work. He was absolutely elated. The only snag was that the job was in France. When he'd first told Kelly that he'd applied for it she had laughed and agreed with him when he jokingly said it would probably be the only job he would get offered.
She wasn't laughing now. She'd gone ballistic when he told her of the job offer and she was absolutely clear in her feelings as to why he shouldn't go.
Fred couldn't understand her reasoning. We stand to lose the house he told her. It's six months guaranteed work he told her. The money I earn will cover all of our outgoings whilst I'm away he told her. It will tide us over and hopefully in six months time the job market here may have improved he told her.
The trouble was she didn't buy into any of this and said he was being selfish. He thought it was so simple, but after becoming frustrated with her attitude and that she seemed to be so blinkered about their plight; he took the easy way out and just stopped talking to her. This seemed to only make her more determined to be against his plan to work abroad, especially when their friends sided with him and thought it was a great idea and he should go.
He exhaled deeply, puffing out his cheeks. He'd already made his mind up. He was going and his departure date was already set and booked. He now had just three weeks to try and turn her around to see sense. But he wasn't hopeful that he would actually succeed.
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KELLY'S PAST
Kelly had lost her virginity when her boyfriend took advantage of her one Sunday night on the sofa in the living room while her parents were out. She recalled it had been very quick and initially quite painful but she knew that she loved him and was convinced that he loved her. After all, he'd said he was going to marry her.