A Recipe for Starting Over

Chapter 3- Dried Umbrellas

Having a best friend that actually cares about you and actually loves you has to be one of the best things that can happen to anybody, and that’s Alexandra. But I can’t tell her this, cause if I do she’d just get overly excited for nothing, Lily says to herself as she drives over to the potential ex-husband’s place to get most of her things and maybe have a decent conversation with him, since they haven’t spoken in over a week since they had the divorce conversation.

Lily opens the door because her fingerprints are still on it and he’d have to remove it, and he clearly hasn’t. Not knowing if anyone is at home, Lily just goes straight to her room and starts packing her things, deliberating on whether she should take most things since they’d remind her of Mark. As she looks around, she reminisces on the things and moments they shared together in the room, when she hears her name. Lily jumps in fear. “Oh my God, Mark, you could’ve knocked or something.”

Mark replies and says, “Well, I saw the door open and I knew it’d be you, cause everyone else knows better than to go into your room without permission, and nobody has been here in over a week. It’s about time you come get your things,” Mark says.

Lily says “oh” in shock, cause she clearly wasn’t expecting that last statement.

“Oh, so if I hadn’t come to get them, what would you have done to them?” she says as she hears the tapping drops of rain on her room’s window. “Oh, perfect, it’s even raining.”

“Mark, what is wrong with you? Did I do anything to be treated the way I’m currently being treated? I’ve never done anything to hurt you. Why am I being hurt this way? Why are you doing this to me? Or is it because I’m doing too much in the relationship?” Mark says “yes” under his breath, but loud enough for her to hear it.

“What did you say?” Lily asks, already intrigued by his statement. “Did you say yes?” Mark repeats his words, loud enough for her to hear it again. “Yes, Lily, I said yes. This relationship feels like a trap. I feel like I’m a bird in a cage with nowhere to run to. I just think we should be free. I don’t want to feel locked again.”

Lily says under her breath, “You could have said that before we got married. Then I know I wouldn’t have made this grievous mistake of getting married. I’ve loved you my entire life and I don’t even know what it’s like to not love you, and now you’re telling me you feel trapped and what you need is space.”

“Oh okay, I’d give that to you. When are you sending the divorce papers?” Lily asks, her voice shaking already as she can barely even talk or breathe well, cause she’s already crying.

“I’d get them from my lawyer and send them tomorrow.”

“Oh okay, that’s fine then. I just came to get some of my things. I’d leave this house for you. I’m taking the dog with me. You can keep the house and every other thing. I don’t want your money.”

“Oh, that’s fine by me,” Mark replies.

“And you can keep the joint account too. I don’t need it,” Lily replies, already about to leave.

As she steps out, she realizes it’s raining and she parked her car far away from the house, so now she has to walk there, crying, without an umbrella. She decides to sit down on the floor in the rain, crying and sobbing her eyes out. It might be the pregnancy hormones or just her feeling really sad that what she worked for ten years to get just ended, and she’s left with nothing but her dog. As she remembers her dog, she runs back into the house to get it and then leave.

Not long after she enters, Mark sees her and asks, “I thought you left?”

“Why do you care?” Lily straight up says back to him.

“Why are you all soaked?” Mark asks as he goes back inside to get an umbrella.

Lily says as she sees him coming out with an umbrella, all dried up, “I don’t need your pity party. You can keep that,” she says back at him, her face swollen from clearly crying earlier.

Then he comes near her to give her the umbrella, and then she says, “Even the umbrella can’t protect a drowned heart,” she says to herself as she wraps her dog around her wet clothes and body. As the dog wiggles around in her arms, she walks to the car and sits on the driver’s seat, all wet and soaked. Angel wiggles around, trying to dry her body, and she says to her, “Sorry, baby. Mum would get you home to Aunty Alex,” as she plants a soft kiss on her face, which seems to calm her down as they drive off.

In Alex’s house

Alex is chilling and watching a movie in nothing but her underwear and a robe over it.

“Hiii, Lily, you’re back. How did it go?” she says casually, not until she looks at Lily and sees her drenched in rain with Rose on her.

“Oh my God, why are you so wet? What happened? What’s going on?” Alex asks, with concern and worry in her eyes. “I thought you went over to Mark’s to get the divorce finalized?”

“Yeah, I did. Turns out he doesn’t have the papers yet and we can’t get it done, so I’d have to go back there today. And I’m all wet because of the rain,” Lily says as she drops Rose down and leaves her running around the house with her wet fur.

Then it finally dawns on her that this is actually starting to feel too real, so she just starts crying, cause she was getting overstimulated.

“Were you crying under the rain?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, I was,” Lily replies.

“Oh, baby, why did you do that? That’s not healthy for you and the baby,” Alex says as she wraps her arms around Lily to give her a hug. “Sorry, baby. You have me. I promise to always be with you.”