Cutting Scenes - The Fine Line

_______
It went downhill from there. Jane went to school and took
an apartment in Boston. She only came home on weekends, and was
always too tired to make love.
“You have no idea how busy I am,” she said, giving the baby
her bath. “The work is overwhelming.”
I could feel anger rise in my throat like bile. I’d given
her everything she ever wanted, and now she was abandoning us,
leaving us behind like an extraneous limb in her useless pursuit
of a degree she’d never use.
“You’ll never go to Haiti and develop programs to get rid
of tuberculosis,” I said. “You’ll never mentor anyone. You’ll
never do a fucking thing with that degree.”
“Up yours,” Jane replied, and walked out of the room.
That was her answer to every problem: walk out of the room.
But now she was walking out of the house and out of my life. I
cancelled her credit cards and moved into one of the guest
suites.
_______
Jane was in Boston on a perfect summer day, when the three
of us went in the pool. I was holding the baby, bouncing her up
and down, in and out of the water. Annie was swimming laps, one
after another, like a pro. When she’d finished 10 of them, she
took her turn dunking Steffy and I did a few laps. Afterwards,
we walked down the manicured path to the guesthouse, Steffy
between us. For the first time I noticed Annie’s strong arms.
She also had nice legs.
“That was refreshing,” she said.
I agreed.
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