“All right, come. You can hang out with the other elephants.”
The moment the words spewed from his mouth, Keith knew he had crossed the Rubicon. Even if their marriage survived, Cindy would never, ever, let him forget what he had just said to her in exasperation.
The stunned expression on his wife’s puffy face quickly dissolved to hurt.
Here come the tears.
“Damn it, Cindy. I’m sorry. But you push and push.”
“I just wanted to spend the day with my husband. What am I supposed to do, hang around this apartment by myself all day?” she sobbed.
Keith looked at her bloated ankles peeking from beneath the bathrobe stretched tightly around her protruding belly. Her once-lustrous blonde hair was limp and dull. Her skin was blotchy and there were dark circles under eyes from lack of sleep. Keith felt sorry for Cindy, yet at the same time he was repelled. He was embarrassed at the thought of bringing her along to the zoo.
He thought of how uncomfortable it would be for both him and Eliza. His wife standing there in the advanced stages of pregnancy, while both of them knew he had made that pass. There was no way he wanted Cindy to come along on this shoot.
“Look, Cindy. This isn’t going to take all day. I’ll be back by mid-afternoon. We’ll do something together when I get home. I promise.”
But Cindy’s initial hurt had progressed to the next stage.
“Don’t bother,” she said angrily. Cindy lumbered into the bedroom and slammed the door.