Cottage

Home at the Cottage

Sarah hurried inside the little Cap Code house and flipped on the light in the front room. She dropped her keys on the table by the door and hung her coat on the hall tree. She went down the hall into the small, bright kitchen and set her parcels on the inlaid ceramic tiled kitchenette table.

Sarah was proud of the little cottage. It had been part of her family for as long as she could remember, as rental property, and when she had graduated from college and began working, she had moved in and made it her own. She had taken out a loan and had the old fashioned kitchen and bath updated. The fireplace had been repaired and a gas line installed. She had repainted and redecorated herself and was pleasantly surprised at how it had all come together into her own comfortable, warm nest.

The smallest of the three bedrooms had been turned into an office. Sarah headed down the hall into the office and placed her briefcase on the small desk which housed a computer and printer set up. If she was going to meet Joe, she’d better get busy on the reports that were due in the morning. She opened the briefcase, took out a disk and a file of paperwork, booted up the computer, slipped the disk into the drive and sat down and began going over the numbers, making notes and adjustments as she went along.

The telephone sitting on the desk next to her right hand rang and startled Sarah back into the present. She had been so involved in her work that she had lost track of time. She picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“Oh, my god. What time is it?”

“It’s 7:30, Sarah. I thought you’d be here before me.”

“I’m not finished with the reports yet. I’m sorry, Joe. I have to get this done.”

“How much longer?”

“I don‘t know, maybe another hour. It‘s much more complicated than I thought.”

“I don’t have that much time, Babe. Can’t you just put it off until later when you get back home?”

“Sweetie, I really can’t. Remember what happened the last time I did that? I didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning and I was late on the quotation I was working on. I can‘t let Henry down again. He covered for me the last time, but he won’t be able to this time. Besides, he was really angry. I don’t want to do that to him up again.” Sarah had taken a real dressing down from her beloved boss that day.

“I don’t understand why you have to take work home with you anyway. Don’t you already work over 40 hours a week?”

“Yes, hon. I know, but this job isn’t always a nine to fiver. I knew it when I got into it. Besides, I like my job. I like the work. Right now I’m computing the end of the month reports, and it’s looking really good. This will make Henry a happy man.”

“Yeah, and make your boyfriend an unhappy man.”

Sarah sighed. She closed her eyes and passed a weary hand over her face. “Okay, Joe. As soon as you’re ready to support me full time, you let me know and I’ll quit the job. Then I‘ll have the time to be at your beck and call and you won‘t have to worry about sharing me with a job or anything else Until then, I have to have some way to pay the bills and it might as well be something I love.”

“Is that all you‘re waiting for, Sarah? A meal ticket? Someone to pay your bills? Funny, I though you loved me.”

“I do.”

“Then get over here!”

“Okay!” Sarah gave up. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She’d have to finish the reports tonight after seeing Joe.

“I love you, Babe. Hurry, I can’t wait to see you.”

Sarah hung up the phone and stared at it. How could he make her do the things he did? Why did he have that power over her? She would probably be up all night finishing the reports and that meant a grumpy day at work tomorrow. She wondered if Joe even gave a thought to that. It wasn’t inconvenient for him to get away, so he gave no thought to what her circumstances might be

Why was he so hard for her to get along with? And why did she keep trying? The big question was, why did she love him so? It wasn’t like she was a novice at love.

She’d been in two long term relationships. One during college, and the other not so long ago. They had both ended simply enough. In both cases, her lovers had wanted to take the next step and she hadn‘t. Sarah didn’t want marriage. She had watched her father and mother grow to hate each other over the years, and she wasn’t about to lock herself in a relationship that turned into that kind of hell. Getting married, then getting a divorce was not for her. She was staying out of that mess.

At least that’s what she’d thought until she met Joe. Now for some unfathomable reason, she wanted it all with him. She didn’t understand her own feelings. Why was it different with him? He was cranky, obsessive, and sometimes downright mean. All that aside, he was also married, which completely went against her grain.