Worlds Apart

Chapter 2 - Conner

Upon making it back to their temporary home, Addison trotted up the narrow stairs to check some work emails and assignments. She worked for an accounting firm, and as much as she loved it, she looked forward to working for herself someday.

As she waited for her remote access to kick in, she checked her personal email and text messages. Nothing. She let out a sigh of relief and then frowned. It didn’t seem right to feel relieved that the person you were supposed to marry hadn’t contacted you in the first week that you’d been out of the country. Conner, her boyfriend. Or possible fiancé? She didn’t know what to call him anymore, what to feel about him.

She had met Conner in college. They’d had a few mutual friends and had met several times before they ever showed interest. In fact, she never HAD been interested. Conner was. . . A bit bland. He was nice, and liked to be a part of student life on campus. He volunteered and joined lots of social clubs during their college years, but Conner was missing. . . Something. After the fun newness of having a boyfriend and having a best friend had worn off, Addison had begun to wonder what ever attracted her to him in the first place? He was handsome, sure, but he was outgoing, still a little immature, and shallow? She winced inwardly. Shallow seemed like a harsh word, but it seemed like the only word. Conner saw the world in a 2-dimensional way, black and white, good and bad, rich and poor.

As individuals, she and Conner were extremely different. He was concerned with what seemed like childish things, while Addison was focused on building her career and potentially starting her own business. He always seemed to try to talk her out of it. “If you want a big house or a higher level jobs, my parents can help us. Or you can work for Dad’s company. Once we are married, don’t you want to stay home with our kids anyway?” This conversation had stunned and deeply insulted her. She had never wanted to stay home. She’d always told him that. For the entire four years they had been together. It felt as if he confined her to a box of his low expectations and expected her to happily stay in that because she was “so in love” with him. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and got to work for the next few hours.

Before she’d come on this trip, she and Conner had been in several arguments. They’d gotten engaged four months ago, and she had started putting her foot down on his attempts to oppress her into the stay-at-home trophy wife roll that he seemed to expect of her once they married. He’d only been speaking that way for about the last 6 months, and tension had been rising ever since. He’d gotten so frustrated with her objections and what he called “stubbornness,” that he’d come to her suggesting they go on a relationship hiatus. Even see other people if the opportunity arose. It had really hurt at first, until she’d felt a bit of the freedom, and now she realized it was she who should have suggested this along time ago, before the engagement had ever happened. While she felt like she still loved Conner, she wasn’t sure if it was enough to marry him. She had enjoyed her independent time thoroughly, and was in no rush to reconcile.