Her Unremarkable Problem

A few days after their engagement, she met his first crush. They were in a coffee-shop. The lady was sipping latte and reading a book of poetry. He took her to the lady’s table and introduced her, rather proudly, as his fiancée. The lady said ‘lovely’. There was the what-are-you-doing lovely-to-meet-you chit chat. The meeting lasted barely a minute. She wondered why the lady seemed evasive, or impatient to get back to the poetry. Back at their table, he told her that the affair had lasted a year. She asked if the lady was ‘into poetry even then’. He nodded. Weird, she thought, he hardly seemed the type for ladies ‘into poetry’.

At their wedding reception, she met two ‘old girlfriends’. They were the friendly sort. They teased him, her too. She felt jealous when he blushed. That turned into irritation when he gushed ‘we should get together soon’. They laughed and teased her, ‘keep an eye on this ladies’ man’. She did not like the way they said it.

In the first year of marriage, she came across a few more of ‘his women’, that’s how she called them then. She sulked at first. He told her that he did not matter to them ‘at all’. She wondered why he did not say ‘they do not matter to me at all’.

One of the ladies was downright rude. He accosted that lady on the busy Main Street and she pretended not to remember him for a few minutes and when she did, she winced, quite visibly. She seemed, strangely, relieved when he introduced his wife. The lady even gave her a strange look. Only later, when they were at home, did she realize it as a pitying look. She observed more closely the next time, and the next time. He was right. He did not seem to matter to them at all. That irritated her. She sulked for a while. She winced whenever she thought of her unremarkable problem.