The Turbulence✔️ (#1 in the Our Side of The Dice series)

11: The Conversation

Christopher
Bonn, Germany

"That was an amazing watch!"  I breathed out satisfactorily as we descended the stairs. We'd gone to see the movie Othello at a rooftop cinema during our vacation in Cyprus.

"Yes! I'm Shakespeare's biggest fan, " Yemisi said, smiling, then she suddenly turned towards me, her expression suddenly serious, which sent cold shivers running down my spine. "But Chris, don't you think Othello is foolish? I mean, I don't understand why someone would trust a jealous worker over his wife."

"Hmm, " I breathed in relief because I thought I'd done something wrong to get that kind of stare from her. Then I proceeded to answer her question.

"Iago had some solid proof, so I can understand Othello's doubts to an extent. Still, if you have sworn to stay faithful to someone, then your partner should trust you enough to know that you won't be unfaithful. Misunderstandings occur, and they sometimes look like the truth, but with effective communication, problems like that can easily be solved."

"Hm. Is that so?" she asked. A small smile appeared at the corner of her lips as we linked arms.

"Yes, it is so."

"Imagine if I was Desdemona and you were Othello, and then an Iago comes into your life and tries to make you believe that I am cheating on you and somehow, your mind happens to go back to an instance where I had close contact with a man, would you be bold and sensible enough to talk it through with me before anything else?"

"Of course, I would. Besides, you are always open to me about your past and every relationship you've had. So I won't be so dumb to think—"

"It was an assumption. Don't sweat over it, " She pressed her index finger on my lips, silencing me up softly. "How about you? Do you give me your word? Can I trust you?"

"Definitely, you can, " I smiled at her. It was no problem for me to reaffirm my love and willingness to be committed to her no matter the number of times she'd asked.

She leaned on me and placed a brief kiss onto the side of my neck.

"Look! I've been craving chicken barbecue for the longest time, " she pointed towards a kiosk where a burly, white man was seen grilling chicken and packing some into a laid-out foil.

"Let's buy it then."

Darn it!

That bloody day! If only I'd foreseen the irony of that discussion we had. She'd spoken as though she had a skeleton in her cupboard whereas, I was the one who needed to earn her trust. Now I am Othello, and the Iago from my past is trying to make my wife believe that I'm unfaithful to her—

But the truth, in this case, is, I am not faithful. I never was. I never once spoke about my betrothal from the past to her. I didn't even mention it to her during our casual and relaxed conversations because I felt like it was an issue of the past. But she, on the other hand, told me every single thing about her life. She trusted me, and I betrayed that trust.

I soiled our marriage.

Now, I can't dare tell Yemisi anything — after being a scumbag by breaking the trust, love, and affection she'd grown towards me for the years we've been together. It had even taken her time to grow these things for me because she was careful of who should come into her life in the place of a new husband and a fatherly figure to her children.