"I am not going to sit quietly and take your crap" she fumed.
"You have me, but you don't want it", he replied mollifying.
"After all these years, is this all I'm worth? she demanded. "We're talking alimony here. This is not some joke."
"You're worth my life", he replied.
"Oh stop it!" she banged the table between them. "I'm no more the besotted in love, naive girl, who fell for the broody genius of college."
"But I'm still the nerd who fell for the matured and extremely beautiful college fresher" he quipped.
"Do you think you can woo me by such gushy, eloquent speech of yours?"
"I did that once. It was extremely difficult. I know how hard it is to convince a strong lady like you. I don't know how to do it again for the lady who can see through me now."
"Remember, our daughter stays with me. We can discuss your meeting arrangements with her once my lawyer comes”, she snapped, ignoring his statement.
“Can we work out an arrangement where I can stay with you too?” he grinned apologetically.
“You find this funny, isn’t it? I am leaving! Do you realize that?” she said exasperated.
“I know that”, he replied gravely, “and I desperately wish you don’t.”
“We can’t work it out” she said, looking into his eyes.
“We’re meant to work it out. You just don’t want to see it” he sighed.
Silence ensued for a whole minute.
“We don’t talk anymore”, she complained in a tone barely audible.
“You’re right. And when you thought of putting that right, you didn’t say it to me, but got a lawyer instead” he retorted.
“Were you even there to listen to me?” she felt the anger, hurt and neglect welling up inside her again.
“Okay. I want to propose something again, today. And this is a promise”, he said, going down on one knee and taking her hand in both of his.
“I am sorry! I am extremely sorry! I went back on all our marriage vows. But today I promise you, from now on, I’ll be a husband and father first, before anything else. I am not a man of letters, you know that. But I strongly hold the adage that when something breaks, we mend it, not throw it away. So, trust me if you still can.”
She was sobbing uncontrollably by then.
A minute later, her lawyer walked into the room. He saw both of them holding hands across the table and talking. Confused, he hurried towards them.
“We won’t be needing your services anymore, thank you”, he smiled at the lawyer, and turned towards his wife and winked.
