Dandelion Lover

I was annoyed at her, pissed at myself and enraged with the situation.

"Stupid girl making me worry..." I whispered as the painful memory of so many years ago started coming back to me, still as vivid as it all happened yesterday.

I was still a young man, oblivious to the way of the world and self-centered to a fault. As the only son of a rich household, I was always surrounded by people fanning over my every word, my mother, however, was always strict with me and tried to teach me how to value what I have. But when all my friends started going to clubs and getting drunk day after day, I swiftly followed their example, ignoring the words of my mother.

Even to this day I regret not spending more time with her and being such an ungrateful son.

In one of the cold winter days of that year, I was greeted home by my aunt who took me directly to the hospital. I had noticed that I had missing calls but as I always did, I ignored them when fooling around with my friends. I was soon lead to a white room where my mother was laying in a cold steel bed, having numerous tubes come out of her, struggling to breathe.

I could hear her faint breathing hitching in her c.h.e.s.t and I would have done anything for me to be there instead of her. I felt like my whole world just turned upside down and that it will never be the same.

After the initial shock, I found out that her cold together with asthma she had since young took a bad turn and she was brought over that evening.

Soon after she was hospitalized, her body couldn't take it anymore and yielded as she was transferred over to life support. It took a whole year for my father to decide to pull her off it, and I always felt he blamed me for not being there when she collapsed.

He was away for business and it was my duty to take care of the house, I knew that, but the temptation of just going against all the expectations people had for me was just too much for the young me.

Over time, my mother's body worsened under my eyes, her once rosy cheeks were now livid and losing color more each day, her eyes sunken in and her hands had become bony and cold. It broke my heart to see her like this but I still spent a big part of my time talking to her in the hopes that she will wake up.

The day her life support was interrupted was exactly one year after the incident, the cold air outside was quietly sipping into my heart as I heard the hums of the machine turn off and the rhythmic sound of her heartbeat steadied into nothingness. It was by far the worst day of my life and it will forever remain as such.

It took me a while to get a grip on my emotions and to finally get into my car and drive home. Right now I felt the need to be near Melanie, she has always been a strong support in my life, someone I could count on no matter what. All the suspicions I had before about her now seemed imm.a.t.u.r.e and pointless, I only knew she was there for me for over 10 years now and I should be grateful for that.

As I pulled into the garage I noticed that all the windows were shut and the dr.a.p.es closed, the heavy silence was torture for my mind that was relieving my painful past, but there was no one there to keep me distracted, I was alone.

...

"I always thought private detectives are supposed to give me answers, how can you say you can't after all this time!?" I shouted at the small bald man in front of me. I was mad, annoyed and had no patience for pleasantries.

"We're sorry but for now there has been nothing out of the ordinary, you wife simply goes to work and she is always with her employees, there is no one out of the ordinary around her and she's not visiting any hotels or motels. Her credit card statement is clear and there are no rumors surrounding her. Sometimes it just takes time..." the man tried to calm me down but it only served to agitate me more.

"Then just call me when you get something!" I angrily replied and took my leave. I was now sure that something weird was happening with Melanie, as she started becoming even more distant from me, we haven't even slept in the same bed for weeks and now she's giving me hell for every little thing, causing us to fight in the little time we spent together.

There was something terribly wrong, and I knew it.

In these last few weeks I had grown tired of cowering and avoiding the situation with Melanie, I tried to take more time from work to stay with her but we never managed to make our schedules to fit, there were days we didn't see each other at all, but it was surely not normal no matter how busy she was.

Luckily I had enough work to keep me occupied and with the help of a little liquid courage I spent my days going back to the empty house at odd hours of the night, it was all I could do until I knew what was going on with her.

I have had enough yielding to Melanie's trifles. "We'll have a new project starting next week, so go home now and rest over the weekend," I ordered the bewildered people that were staring back at me like I was a madman. I kept them working overtime with me these last few weeks and felt their unease, it wasn't right to torture them just because I was out of my mind.

"Just go before I change I mind," I said with what I considered a reassuring smile and urged them to go home.

I returned to my office, poured myself a drink and listened to the rustle of the people leaving the office. I soon found myself in complete silence and the need to have a smoke while sipping on my drink made me exit my den and reach the stairs.

I barely managed to lit up my cigarette when I smelled the fragrance of freshly grounded coffee and vanilla. I knew that scent by heart now, it was the coffee made by Katelyn who always added extra milk to make it lighter and some sugar to give it that comforting taste.

"Want one?" I heard a voice behind me say and when I turned around Kate was standing by the kitchen sipping from a coffee mug, her eyes looking at me intently, waiting tensely for my reaction. She was smiling cheerfully at me but I could feel by the look in her eyes that she was not as happy as she wanted to appear.