At Sunset (ChickLit)

Chapter One

“We’ll get through this.” She had said this to herself at least a dozen times before coming down stairs, having felt convinced herself of the lie she repeated. They’d been familiar with the fact that Melanie had the cancer since she was nineteen.

“You’ve become comfortable with it already,” he said bitterly. He had wanted to say something else, she could tell by the way he opened his mouth again but closed it, biting down on his lip.

“I haven’t become comfortable with it,” she sighed. “I just don’t want to become self-pitying and sorry for myself.”

She’d gone over this in her head too. Before she had come down she needed to convince herself that not only would sitting around moping about the house do her any good. She needed to stay active. To make her situation better the only thing to do was to pretend that it didn’t bother her as much as it really did. She also needed to agree with herself that she would make Wes’s life easier.

“I guess,” Wes said running a hand through his wavy dark hair. He’d been trying to schedule a haircut for weeks now. I’d better get on that Melanie thought ruefully. She hated spending the money on things that always turned out the wrong way. With either clipped ears or a too closely shaved head, haircuts were one of the things that Melanie tried to avoid if all possible. This was also the reason Melanie had declined chemotherapy.

 “Come on, I’m making fries,” she said grinning as she pressed her lips into his neck right by his collar bone. His breath caught for a second and smiling wider she kissed by his ear. “If you want we can make burgers...” She was sure he knew that she was trying to draw him out of his mopey state, but if he did he showed no signs of interjecting or crushing her spirit.

There was a second of silence before Wes smiled himself and announced that he would fire up the grill if she got the patties. They broke into two separate directions, one to the freezer and the other on the back porch and on that dark moonless April night, with her husband out back and her own self inside she knew that not only were they going to get through this but also that they were going to be just fine.

- - -

“How’s he doing?” Wes asked, now eleven months later.

“He’s doing better,” Melanie said smiling down at the small body, he laid curled in a fetal position in her lap. He’d been brought in earlier in the day and hadn’t left her lap since. “He’s gotten bigger since he was born. He’s grown at least a couple ounces and he hasn’t slowed down on eating since I got him.”

She could sense him smiling on the other end of the phone. “Just like me right?” He said with laughter in his tone. She imagined him in his hotel room sitting on the bed, cradling the phone between his ear and shoulder, imagining them both.

“Exactly like you.”

She nuzzled her nose into the baby’s stomach and made a funny noise. The baby’s face changed and instead of his usual curious face a smile blossomed and he laughed. She quickly wrote all the details about her baby.

“You’re so adorable,” she said out loud.