“We’ve talked it through so many times we’ve run out of words. I don’t think counseling will help.” Drew walked over to his personal single-cup coffee brewer, which was probably a perk of the office, and brewed them each a mug.
Mitch waited while his friend made the coffee, thinking he was probably deciding what he did and didn’t want to say, and how to say it. Drew and Mal had been high school sweethearts, but they’d gone their separate ways when it came time for college. They’d both ended up back in Whitford, though, and they’d just had their ten-year anniversary.
“Mal doesn’t want kids,” Drew finally said, after he’d set their mugs on the desk and sat back down.
“Right now?”
“Ever.”
“Wow.” Mitch didn’t know what else to say. Drew and Mallory had always talked about having kids…someday.
“It was always not yet and not right now and someday. I told her someday had come, and she said the only someday that had come was the someday she was going to tell me she didn’t want to have kids.”
“You guys were together all through high school and you’ve been married ten years. How can you not have had this conversation before? I mean, it doesn’t even make sense. I remember you guys talking about kids. She wanted a daughter named…something. Hell. It was a flower.”
“Daisy.” Drew snorted. “She was afraid I wouldn’t marry her if I knew, so she said what she thought I wanted to hear and then just kept on saying it. Now I’m heading toward forty and I’ve got no kids and I may not even have a wife anymore.”
“I’m sorry, man. Why did she decide to tell you the truth now?”
“Because I told her it was time. Neither of us are getting any younger, her pregnancies would be higher risk and I didn’t want to need a walker to get to my seat at the kid’s graduation. Over the years I brought it up more and more often, but I finally told her I didn’t want to put it off anymore. I want a baby. She doesn’t want a baby. We haven’t talked since.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Five weeks.”
“Jesus, you and Mal haven’t spoken to each other in five weeks? I thought you said you guys had talked about it so much you ran out of words.”
“That was in the months—hell, years—leading up to five weeks ago.”
“Are you still living together?”
Drew nodded. “She got pissed off and went to sleep in the guest room. Since we haven’t spoken, she hasn’t come back.”
Mitch couldn’t even wrap his head around it. “You mean you haven’t talked about kids.”
“No, we haven’t spoken at all. At first it was awkward and uncomfortable, but now…it’s just our new normal, I guess.”
“That’s messed up.” Maybe Mitch had never been married, but he knew enough about healthy relationships to recognize an unhealthy one. “Maybe you should rethink the therapy.”
“When I brought it up, she said suggesting therapy was like saying there was something wrong with her for not wanting to be a mother. It went downhill from there.”
“How long are you going to keep on not talking to each other?”
“I don’t know. There are only two possible outcomes—divorce or I tell her it’s all right if we never have kids. And I’m not okay with either one.” Drew gulped down some of his coffee. “Jesus, listen to me. You didn’t stop in to hear me whine about my problems. Sounds like you’ve enough of your own to deal with.”
“Trying to get into Paige’s pants is nothing like you maybe losing Mallory.”
“I meant the lodge and Josh, actually, but a hundred bucks says you won’t have any better luck with Paige than I am with Mal.”
Mitch laughed. “If I was an asshole, I’d take you up on that. Wouldn’t mind your hundred in my pocket. But I never bet on a lady. They always find out, sooner or later.”
“Like you’re ever still around for the later.”
“One of these days, I’m going to surprise everybody and stick with one woman forever.”
Drew smiled, but Mitch could see the sadness around his eyes. “Just make sure you both want the same thing in life, because it hurts like hell when you find out years into it that you don’t.”
While he hadn’t been as many years into the relationship as Drew had, Mitch had already learned that lesson the hard, messy way. A man and a woman wanting two different things ended up in two different places, as a rule, which could only lead to misery.
He was a lot better off when he and a woman wanted the same thing—orgasms not of the do-it-yourself variety. Maybe only one or maybe quite a few, but then they went their separate ways with no hard feelings. With the exception of that one doomed relationship, it was a plan that had served him well and he hadn’t yet found a second woman worth detouring for.
Chapter Three