Through the cracks

Chapter Two

The next morning, Lucas is not in a good mood and after breakfast he retires to the living room to watch sport. On Sundays, he likes to watch the grand-prix and lie in front of the television where she sometimes finds him sleeping on the coach.

She goes to church and after church she makes Sunday lunch. She takes the supper she made him last night and throws it in the dustbin.

A new week arrived, and before she knew it, the week had ended. Ava is so busy that by Friday she feels tired. She promised herself that she would sleep in on Saturday.

On Friday night, Ava walks past the room and hears Lucas on the phone.

He was talking in a soft tone;

“I love you too”.

Maybe he is talking to one of the grandchildren as she has never heard him say those words to one of the children. Did he whisper or was that just her imagination? When she walks into the room, he quickly finishes the conversation:

“OK, we will talk later”, and he puts it face down on the table without even saying goodbye.

Lucas is all dressed up, and she gets a hint of his after shaving. She loves the warm smell of cedar wood, cinnamon and clove and that always arouses her.

“Where are you off too now?” Ava asked, annoyed that he never told her what his plans were.

“I have a meeting with the investors on the new development, my hard work paid off as we got the tender I was working on last weekend”, he says with a smirk on his face.

Ava felt disappointed. She thought they could go out for supper, and it had been about a week since they last made love. He has worked late every night the past week, and it feels like they are living past each other. He is not an affectionate person and s*x is the only reassurance that he still loves her and wants to be with her.

“Well, take care then, maybe we can watch a movie when you get back?” She asked.

“I might get in very late, don’t wait up for me.” He said and left the house.

She is a little bit overweight and of average height, but Ava takes good care of herself. She has big green eyes, and she makes sure that she visits the hair salon at least once a week to keep the gray hair under control. She also makes sure that she visits the beauty salon regularly for pedicures, manicures and waxing. She also takes special care with her make-up and looks at tutorials to see how to best hide her flaws. When the children were still living at home and the company was still not as successful as it is today, she did not have time for herself and sometimes neglected herself.

After Lucas left, Ava phoned her best friend Janelle and asked her to come over for snacks and wine. Although they don’t really talk about it. Ava knows that Janelle does not like Lucas and after Ava told her that he was out for the night Janelle immediately agrees to come visit. They spend the night drinking wine and gossiping about all their mutual friends and talking about their children and grandchildren. Jenelle had been divorced for many years and only had one married son and a granddaughter. She is bitter after her divorce as she caught her husband cheating and, therefore, Ava does not share any intimate details of her and Lucas’s marriage with her. She trusts and loves Lucas and does not need any negative advice or comments from her friends. Jenelle once spoke ill of Lucas in front of Ava and that nearly cost her her friendship with Ava. They agree not to talk about Lucas ever again. Jenelle leaves just after midnight and Lucas is still not home. After a long bath, Ava and Kristy get into bed.

It must have been the wine because Ava fell asleep almost immediately and only woke up the next morning to find Lucas sound asleep next to her. Her head is pounding, and she needs a headache pill and coffee. She does not even know at what time Lucas came home.

A strong cup of coffee combined with a pain pill makes Ava feel a bit better and takes a shower. She takes a lot longer than usual to shower and apply make-up. On Sundays, she usually does not wear make-up, but she does not want Lucas to see how pale and fragile she looks. Maybe she had a little bit too much wine last night. When she finally comes out of the bathroom, she realizes that Lucas has been impatient and used the other bathroom and has already left. She can only smell his aftershave as she passes the bathroom in the hallway. She could have just saved herself the trouble of applying the makeup.

Maybe Millie, her daughter and the kids will pop in later. She hopes. She makes herself another coffee and sits down on the coach. Kristy came in and laid down on the floor. The sun was shining into the room through the partly opened curtains and Kristy loved sunbathing, so she was lying on her back enjoying the sunlight. She would prefer the curtains closed, but she cannot be selfish. It is not Kristy’s fault that she had too much to drink last night and finds the sun a bit bright this morning.

She sees Lucas’s cell phone on the coffee table, still facing down, where he left it after his conversation last night. She realizes that he must have forgotten it there. As she looks at the screen, after picking it up, a message comes through. The name on the screen does not look familiar. It is from a woman. The name on the screen was Emma or Eva or something with an E. Ava could only read" I am waiting for you Love you”, before the notification disappeared.

When she tries to open the message, the screen goes blank. She tries to unlock the phone, but it requires a password. She is afraid to guess the password as Lucas might not like that if she blocks the phone. Why would Lucas put a password on his phone? Her heart was racing. Is he busy cheating? Does he have an affair? She could feel a panic attack coming on.

She must calm herself. Maybe the message was just her imagination. Maybe it was not even meant for him? She tore her eyes from the screen that had mesmerized her for ten minutes. She phones Johnson and Partners and the security officer answers the phone.

"Hi Stefa, is the boss there? Can you connect me with him please?" Ava said, while a sinking feeling overwhelmed her.

"No madam, I have not seen him today. Should I give him a message if he comes?" The security guard asked politely.

She hears a car door slamming and children’s voices. Kristy jumps up and waits at the door.

"Just ask him to phone me urgently please," Ava said.

Kristy loves the grandchildren, but she is also always tired when they go home again, as she is ten years old and lives with older people and is not used to so much excitement and playing.

Ava quickly regained her posture and put a big smile on her face. Millie and the kids are chatting. When Michael, who is 2 years of age, and his sister Mila, who is 4 years old, run into her arms, she tries to put up a brave face and, for the next two hours, she spends time with her grandchildren and her daughter.

"Mom! Did you hear what I said?", Millie asked, and broke her thoughts suddenly, and she realized she was not paying attention to the conversion with Millie.

"Sorry, what did you say? I was thinking of something I had to do." She quickly explained.

"Is something wrong?" Millie, knowing her mother, could see she was struggling internally with something.

"No, everything is fine, I had too much wine", she said while putting up a brave face.

"Maybe we should leave and you can rest a bit. I cannot imagine that the kids are making your hangover any better." Millie jokes and then calls the kids so that they can leave.

Ava felt bad that she was being unpleasant, but she was not in the mood for guests. Her mind was elsewhere, and it was a relief to her that Millie could always sense these things and allowed her mother her space when she needed to.