The derisive laugh Aviva emitted, set Jason even more on edge.
“I hear you, Jason. Let’s flip this for a minute. Say I had been married before, and you had asked me repeatedly if there was anything else you should know about my life. Consider if you will, that in response to said repeated question, I said no. Then one day a stranger walks into our home and announces that I am a bigamist and that you are not legally married to me, tell me how the hell you would feel, Jason?”
“I’d kick his ass right out the front door. Then I would continue to love you and know that you are my wife, and the only woman I have, and will ever love. Can you do the same for me, Aviva?”
The sight of her renewed tears, and knowing that he was the cause broke Jason’s heart. Going to her, he knelt on the floor and brushed a loving hand across her cheek. Collecting her tears as he went, he leaned in close and touched his forehead against hers. “I’ll make it right, Angel. I promise, I will make this right.”
“Tell me about your inconsequential first marriage,” Aviva said as she leaned away from his touch.
Rising to his feet, Jason pulled up a chair and positioned it, so he was facing her head on. Deciding to get the telling over with, in as few words as possible, he began to speak.
“I was nineteen years old and completely out of control. I’m pretty good with numbers and even at that age I had already made a lot of money, but I wanted, no I needed more, a lot more.
I came up with a plan. That plan took me to Vegas. Armed with my fake ID, I worked the casinos and the Blackjack tables. I knew what I was doing, and I won a lot of money. I managed to stay under everyone’s radar for a while. Just as the casinos started to catch on to me, I met Farrah. A native Las Vegan, she worked in one of the clubs. As best as I could tell she was employed to look pretty and encourage the punters to play big.
One night when I was leaving the casino, she approached me with a warning that I was being watched. She was a good looking older woman; I didn’t mind the company, so we hooked up.
She introduced me to certain games that enabled me to win the sort of money I had come to Vegas looking for. The types of games that are conducted in back alleys, and where nobody asks too many questions.
I was drinking a lot back then, and when Farrah suggested we get married, I didn’t put up much of an objection. I guess we were together for about eighteen months. Married for ten of them.
When I was ready to move on, I found a divorce lawyer, got a quick divorce, and gave her some money. She came out of the marriage way better than when she went in. That was it. Today is the first time I’ve set eyes on her in almost fifteen years.”
Aviva smiled at Jason even as fresh tears filled her eyes. “You are the most caring man I have ever met, and I love you.”
“Don’t say it, Aviva,” Jason warned. Her words were those he never grew tired of hearing, but her expression belied them.
“I have to; I’m tired, Jason. Your life and being around you exhaust me.”
“Okay, whatever you want, you’re tired, the accident, I get it. We’ll go away, take a break, just you and me.” Pulling her onto his lap, Jason held her close and continued to throw suggestions into the air. He needed to stop her from saying the words they both knew he would never accept. “Where do you want us to go? Just name it, and we can leave right now.”
“It’s not that simple and you know it. Life around you is never that simple.”
“Tell me what you want, Aviva. I’m trying here, but I don’t understand what you need.”
Jason understood how difficult it must be for her to be around him. His life had always been one catastrophe after another. With the demise of the men who had tormented his youth, he had hoped that the upheavals of his past were behind him. Over the last few days her accident was his main concern, or at least it had been until Farrah turned up.
In the past they had been down the road of her thinking of leaving him. They both knew it wasn’t going to happen, hence his current lack of understanding at the odd way she was behaving.
“I need a bloody drama free life, that’s what I need, Jason!” Aviva all but shouted, her tears gone.
“That’s what I’m trying to give you. I work in the family business, dress up in a shirt and tie and go into the office, which I would much rather not do. We bought a house in the country for God’s sake, because that’s what you wanted. I’m trying here, Aviva, you know I’m trying, and you need to cut me some slack.” Jason held his breath as he awaited her response. He knew what was coming, but he held on to the slim hope that he was wrong.
“Oh, so you think you’re slick, huh? If you don’t want to go into the office don’t go, I don’t care! Do you think I’m dumb?”