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 Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:48 pm
“I hate to say I told you so, but… I told you so.”
Marissa at least had the decency to pour Michael a drink as she said it.
It’d been a while since they’d joined one another at one of Destiny City’s most popular Mexican restaurants — not because they hadn’t had the time for Friday Night Taco Night, but because Michael had been otherwise occupied with his… boy toy.
Which probably wasn’t the best term to use when the proper term was husband, but Marissa was two margaritas down and didn’t care that it might be insulting. Michael got himself a young husband despite Marissa’s warnings.
Take it from someone who’s been the young wife, she’d said. This is a bad idea.
Maybe next time he’d listen.
Although, something told her there wouldn’t be a next time.
Marissa bit into a taco with absolutely no elegance. The restaurant was loud and lively at this hour, but with good food and a margarita pitcher between them, the rest of the crowd tended to fade into the background.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:02 pm
“You don’t sound like you hate it,” Michael grumbled, taking the drink Marissa had poured for him. He sincerely hoped she hadn’t convinced him to get tacos with her so she could harass him about his life choices.
Yes, he’d been married. He’d been happy. Or at least as happy as he understood what happiness was. But things just didn’t work out. Michael was older, had been through… a lot of different traumas that ended up shaping him into who he was.
He was often depressed and suffered from PTSD, both of which were undiagnosed because he refused to get help for his problems. He doubted he would ever be in the right state of mind to adopt a shelter dog, not when hyperactivity and loud noises shot his anxiety through the roof.
Oh, and undiagnosed anxiety.
He didn’t want to have kids, and his idea of a perfect day was one spent sitting in the dark on a rainy day reading a book. Or out on his boat where he could focus on the wind and the water and it was too deafening to hold a conversation.
Had he been in love? Yes. Was he still in love? Probably, but he acknowledged his faults and why it was unfair to his ex to be cornered into a relationship that would likely never progress from where they were.
But now…? Michael didn’t want anything to do with love or relationships or anything of that nature. He should have stuck to being a permanent bachelor. This time he wasn’t going to make the same mistake.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2021 2:54 pm
Marissa shrugged.
She didn’t hate to say it, but she didn’t like it either. A shitty situation was a shitty situation no matter how you looked at it. She could sympathize even if her experience with relationships and divorce was as the younger party.
It was why she remained single at forty-five her age. Relationships were messy and had the habit of requiring a lot of work, especially when people were rarely one hundred percent compatible. It was easier to remain unattached. She had her friends, her kids, and her niece. She didn’t need any more than that.
Which was why it’d been such a shame when Michael was tied down. They still hung out on occasion, but it was nothing like before. Marissa hadn’t wanted to go anywhere near a relationship she viewed as a ticking time bomb.
“Lighten up,” she said, not without kindness or sympathy, but she wasn’t about to coddle him either. “It’s over and done with. You tried and it didn’t work out, and that’s okay. Try not to dwell on it.”
Said the one who frequently dwelled on her own failed marriage.
Whatever. Everyone was a little hypocritical.
“You want to patrol tonight or would you rather hit up a hotel?” Marissa asked, polishing off her taco in a few more bites.
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Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:41 pm
While Marissa tried to offer him advice, Michael took the time to work on his own set of tacos. It was a nice break from… whatever he’d been eating at home. Had he been cooking, or had Peter done most of the work recently? He couldn’t seem to remember well enough. A lot of his domestic life was a blur, and all he really lived for was being a knight and teaching kids about engineering and poetry.
“Right, lighten up. I wish I thought of that,” he grunted, but he knew that Marissa was being as kind to him as he deserved. At least she wasn’t being a jerk about it, not really. And she sort of knew what it was like to end a relationship.
He let out a sigh and shook his head, knowing that he was making this more of a big deal than he probably should. It wasn’t as though it was the end of the world, although it felt pretty shitty for a time. Things were slowly getting better, and he was able to distract himself. Or at least Peter knew when he needed distractions, because he found himself doing things like making puzzles and playing board games with him more often.
The offer was tempting, and in the end he decided that he needed to feel normal for a change.
“Definitely hotel,” he said with a small shrug, before finishing off the rest of his own taco.
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:31 pm
Marissa rolled her eyes at Michael’s snark. She couldn’t blame him for it, but it also wasn’t going to benefit either one of them.
“You’re as charming as always,” she said, equally sarcastic.
A relationship crashing and burning sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world, it simply took some time to clean up the steaming wreckage enough to see everything else that existed around you. Marissa was still picking up pieces of her own failed marriage every so often. It got easier, even if the hurt never really went away, just burrowed itself deep so you forgot about it until you found the next piece.
She finished her drink, then stared at the little that remained in the pitcher.
“Seems a shame to let it go to waste,” she said, pouring the rest for herself.
It only filled half of her glass, and she drank it quickly, motioning for Michael to finish his as she stood from her chair.
“Down the rest of that and let’s get out of here.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 2:14 pm
Once upon a time, Michael was charming. He smiled brightly and said stupid pickup lines and got through life by ignoring everything bad that happened to him. At the time it was easier.
And then he became a Knight and he had something else to live for. Peter moved in with him and he needed to stay to make sure his little brother was looked after.
With something else to live for, he had no reason to hide behind smiles and jokes, and the bitterness and internal suffering drew to the surface. Now he doubted he would be considered charming and he was okay with that.
He was aware that Marissa had probably been the closest he had to a friend for years, even if they were just with benefits and neither of them had any interest in a relationship. It would be too weird seeing as his little brother was married to her daughter.
If he was honest, he missed their friendship.
Michael didn't have to be told twice to finish off his drink, and he pulled out his wallet to leave plenty of cash to cover their bill and tip.
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