Fragile Husband

"Oh no..." She couldn't stop herself from asking. "Did I just say something to upset you?"

Prior to this concluding question, Rosalie had spewed venomous accusations and lies all around the bed, in heaps, circling a coiled and curled up mess of a man that was, what was left of, Randy.

She had pent up inside her some awfully massive frustrations. Not just a few, but perhaps a few dozen. She lay them all out, one after the other, all leading up to the finale of all the questions and accusations. 

Randy was emotionally raw, laid bare, unable to move.

"What is wrong with you, why won't you talk to me? You've been so quiet lately, and you just lie there when I have so much to tell you, you must have something to say to me. Come on Randy! I'm your wife, there must be something you have to say that you are feeling or experiencing or going through... Why don't you just tell me what's going through your mind!?"

Randy didn't dare to move, breath too deeply, or twitch in any way that would give Rosalie any indication as to how he was truly feeling. He was broke down, depressed and he just wanted time to be alone, some silence, some peace, not always under the thumb of a jealous and suspicious girl, who projected her insecurities and deep seated issues on to others, especially her new and emotionally fragile husband.

Then, as if all the prior questions and accusations had merely been a build up to this question, a parade of hollow suspicions and insults, she asked, void of emotion, and with no regard as to how it might wound Randy, "Are you gay?"

Then Randy impulsively reacted, unable to contain himself, for she had purposely posed this question knowing she would get a reaction. The question had been asked before, by people who were naturally curious, or deliberately hateful. This time, however, the question had come from someone he loved so very much, someone he trusted immeasurably, someone with whom sex was incredibly passionate and ultimately satisfactory.

"How can you ask me that?" Randy returned, genuinely struck and shocked to his core. The question stung, it became embedded in his heart, piercing deep and remaining there. The tears burst out and flowed down his cheeks into his ear and then onto the bed. Onto the bed where they had made love nearly every night since they had become husband and wife.

Rosalie returned with one final remark, after which she left the house, leaving Randy to absorb the damage that was so quickly and fiercely done. "I knew you were." Is all she had to say, assuming that my tearful outburst was a reliable, emotionally raw confession.