ENTANGLED IN DESIRE

Barely 12pm and Loretta hears the sound of her husband’s car pulling up in the driveway, she leaves her place on the couch in the living room where she sat watching a television drama with an unnecessarily convoluted plot. The drama revolve around a woman caught in a love triangle between a woman and two other men, one of which is her husband and the other a billionaire she fell for after a state dinner that ended in a one night stand. She had asked herself time and again, as she watched and giggled in amusement what the odds was of such a thing happening in real life, and she concluded that the odds was zero, it was just a television drama after all. Walking to meet her husband at the door, curiosity and worry dance in the confines of her heart, while echoe imagery of the television drama play behind her eyes, her lips curve lightly with mirth. She opens the door before it knocks, revealing a distressed looking man who looks to be pushing forty, if not a little bit over, with soft brown eyes, his right arm is poised as if he was about to knock, fist clenched tightly and jaws clenched in anger and fright. Loretta’s heart leaped in her chest, her hands cup his face without hesitation as worry bloom in her features, all thoughts of the television drama forgotten. “Damien, what happened? You look beyond disturbed.” The tension on his shoulders seem to loosen just a smidge as Damien looks at his wife, yet the pain in his eyes seem to grow, he shakes his head in silence and pulls her into a hug, his voice trembles as he force himself to speak. “It’s all gone babe, everything I’ve built, my career, my reputation, it’s all gone.” His arms tighten around her waist as he buries his face further in the crook of her neck, Loretta stands still as a mannequin, hands around her husband’s neck as she tries to process the depth of what she just heard. “Let’s go inside, I’ll get you something to drink and you tell me everything, okay baby?” Damien grunts as he allowed himself to be led, Loretta held him by the hand and led him to the bedroom, with practiced ease she took off his tie and undid his buttons, her motions calm and gentle even though her heart was racing with fear and worry. Damien had lost his job! “You have a bath okay, I’ll get you something to eat...” “I’m not hungry”. He interrupted her before she could finish, “just a drink will do, please.” He turned and walked into the bathroom, unbuckling his belt and letting his trousers fall. Loretta bit her lower lip and picked up after him quietly, folding his clothes neatly away. In silence she walked to the small bar in the living room, pick his favourite brand of whiskey and two glasses. As she turned to leave, she noticed the television drama was still on, but in the wake of the news she had just received, it wasn’t entertaining anymore. She bit her lip again and walked out. She walks into the room to see Damien sitting on the bed, water still dripped from his hair and a white towel wrapped around his waist, he looks distant and distraught. She places the glasses on the bedside table as she opens the whiskey and pours into both glasses, then she hands him one. He takes it with shaky hands. “Argus betrayed me. After all these years and after everything we’ve been through, that bastard betrayed me, threw me under the bus just for a chance at a promotion.” His voice is low, his words laced with bitterness and venom. Loretta sits beside him, an arm around his shoulders as he breaks down. Damien wasn’t the toughest emotionally by any means, in fact, he struggled with his own fragile ego, but Loretta loved him regardless, the man was deeply loyal, which made the betrayal he had suffered in the hands of his colleague and close friend all the more painful to him. “I got fired by the board, they didn’t even give me a chance to speak. And it gets worse, so much worse.” His voice was barely above a whisper, he reached out to refill his glass, Loretta didn’t stop him, her own glass remained in her hand, forgotten. “What do you mean it gets worse?” Her throat was dry as she swallowed, nervous energy filling every inch of her body and her heart palpitations threatened to give her high blood pressure, and yet, she maintained a calm façade as Damien finally turned to face her, his eyes red, veins throbbing at his temples and his jaw tightly clenched. “My savings... Our savings is gone, I’ve nothing left but this roof over our heads. My reputation in the business market is ruined, I won’t be able to get a job for a very long time babe, I’m finished.” Loretta bears witness to the tears that fall from his eyes, she watch her husband break down into a sobbing mess and she wraps her arms around him in silence, placing his head on her chest and running her hands through his hair. Her eyes water as she feels his grip on her tighten while he bawls. “It’s okay baby, it’s going to be okay.” Even as she says these words, Loretta doesn’t quite believe it herself, grief overwhelms her, and though she wished to cry too, as it hurt her to see her husband so broken, Loretta kept whispering to him as she held him, staying strong for him. Damien falls asleep in her arms and she helps tucks him into bed best she can. Unlike Damien who worked during the day, she worked at night at an upscale jazz club as a waitress and she had to begin getting ready to go, as much as it pained her to leave Damien alone. By the time she was ready to go, it was a little over 6pm, and Damien was forcing a very late lunch down his throat per her orders, his face grimacing with every bite and his gaze distant but more grounded. “I’m off now D, I’ll try to be home early okay?” Damien simply responded with a grunt, her chest tightened but she offered him a tight smile anyway, kissed him on the cheek and left the house.