This is part of a short story that I’m working on. A while ago, I posted a small excerpt from another story that I wrote. I have been meaning to post more stories, I just didn’t really think that they were any good. Today, I received a great compliment on my writing, so I grew some cojones and decided to post another excerpt from a different story. This story is tentatively titled “The Scheme.” This section, is from the beginning of the story and is titled “New Beginnings.” Without further ado:
The smell of the place struck him as awkward. The musty smell of the carpets on the wall, the incense, the music, it all combined to overpower the reservations that he had. The place was dimly lit, with hard wood floors and those musty carpets covering every square inch of wall.The place definitely had “atmosphere.”
“Something tells me that those carpets don’t get cleaned very often,” he thought to himself.
Despite that, he still managed to get a “This place is great isn’t it?” out that sounded legitimate.
“Yes” she answered demurely, which caught him by surprise.
This was their first date since having had a big discussion about how they needed to spend more time apart from each other. Basically he was told to find someone else who wanted to spend time with him. Of course, it doesn’t help that it was his wife that was doing the telling, and not just a friend or a girlfriend.
They ordered their appetizers or “apps”, as they liked to call them, back in a different time and place. Back when things were fun. Back when things were “fine”.
The waitress came to their table and left a bowl with something green in it.
“What is this green stuff?” He asked
“I think that’s the cucumber Jell-O” She posited.
“Oh… Do you like it?
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, you can have it all”. He didn’t like the texture of it, or maybe it was his nerves that suddenly robbed him of his appetite.
The relationship had deteriorated to the point where they could barely stand to be in the same room with each other. He really didn’t mind being told to find himself some friends to spend time with, since he really didn’t want to spend time with her either. After what seemed like an enormous amount of time, the waitress returned.
“May I take your order ma’am?”
“I’ll have the Lamb Stew”
“I’ll have the Lamb Shish kabobs”
“Lamb Kabobs” said the waitress
“Yes, Lamb Kabobs” he corrected himself.
This “date” was supposed to have taken place the night before. 10 minutes before they were to go out, she told him that she’d rather go out with her friends instead. Her “invisible” friends as he liked to call them since he’d never met them nor seen any evidence that they actually existed beyond hearing her talk of them. Never mind that they made the plans to go out earlier in the week, and talked about where they wanted to go for their “date”. He figured, he didn’t deserve that kind of treatment but he took it anyway.
When they first met, they couldn’t be apart from each other. They spent every waking and sleeping moment together. Just like any other couple.
That was all in the past now, The Scheme had gotten in the way.