Kenta and I have been together for nearly six years, but it sure doesn't feel like it. The honeymoon phase has long left our marriage. I mean, I expected it to leave, but not this soon. It's as if Kenta doesn't notice I exist anymore. I feel more like his roommate than his wife. I've been trying many time to put the spark back into our marriage, but no dice.

I look up at the clock on the wall after taking the last batch of muffins out of the oven. 

"Kenta!" I called out. "It's 7:35!"

Kenta emerged from the hallway, putting on his tie. Seeing that he was struggling, I made my way over to help him. After tightening the tie, Kenta went inside the kitchen and came back stuffing two of the muffins in his mouth without even thanking me. I knew it was a terrible this to wish on somebody, but I secretly hoped he would choke on them.

"I packed your lunch for you. It's in the fridge."

Kenta, still chewing on the muffins, went back to the kitchen to retrieve the bag. I guess he had some sense to know he'd choke because Kenta returned with his lunch in one hand and a glass of cranberry juice in the other.

"Thanks, Eden." Kenta pecked me on the cheek. He went over by the couch for his suitcase.

"Oh, now you know how to say thank you,"I mumbled.

"What?"

"It's about time for us to go."

"Oh, right."

I went towards the counter for my earrings. After putting them on, I went over to the other side of the couch for my suitcase.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" Kenta pointed to the muffins.

"Oh, I'm not really hungry right now," I lied.

"You will be later."

"I'll take my chances."

"Well, more for me." I watched as my 28-year-old husband stuffed the pastries in his mouth like a little kid. I swear men can be so childish sometimes.

Being the good wife I was, I went to the kitchen, got the cold jug of cranberry juice, and poured Kenta another glass.

Don't get me wrong. I love my husband dearly, but sometimes I dreadfully wonder what I'm doing with my life.

Kenta and I first met during our days as middle school kids. We started out as being the best of friends just as many other people. We had so much in common: ice cream sundaes at our birthday parties over cakes, our love for anime, and so forth. It wasn't until high school did we officially become a couple. No one asked either one of us geeks to the prom, so we decided to take each other. We thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal until we both saw each other come out of our shells. We were the envy of everyone at that prom.

Fourteen years later, here we are in a condo in Los Angeles as successful businesspeople working for Google. During the fist few years of our marriage, we would sometime go back to those day when we'd come over to each other's houses during the weekend and watch anime. The one we'd watch the most was Inu-Yasha. Nowadays, Kenta acts as if he's too good to do that anymore. That was when we first started drifting apart. To make matter worse, he even forgot my birthday last year. Whatever is happening between us, I hope it gets fixed soon. I love Kenta way too much to allow him to see him in someone else's arms.

After Kenta finished the last drop of his juice, he picked up his lunch and his suitcase before heading out towards the door. I followed closely behind him with my suitcase. We made our way towards our red Prius, with Kenta going into the driver's side as usual. The majority of the ride was silent with the exception of the occasional cough and sneeze.

Finally, Kenta was able to break the silence. "So, did you hear about the new guy we were supposed to have come today?"

"The transfer from China, right?" I asked.

"Right. He's here on a business Visa. Any idea on his name?"

"I think it was Dominic Zhai. Something like that."

"Yeah, they believe he could take the company to the next level. Not just the North American headquarters, either."

"He seems like a pretty cool guy. I can't wait to meet him."

Before we knew it, we were already ay the front gate of the whimsically-designed company. Kenta took out his wallet and pulled out his I.D. to be scanned. When the scanner lit green, the gate automatically opened.

During our lunch break, Kenta and I spotted a tall Chinese man talking to our supervisor.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"That's probably Dominic," Kenta replied.

After throwing our trash away, we approached Mr. Weichert, our supervisor, and the man who could possibly be the new transfer.

"Hello, lovebirds," Mr Weichert greeted us when our eyes met. "Just the people I needed to see. As you all know, we have a new transfer from Hong Kong. This is Dominic Zhai."

Dominic smiled at us while he shook our hands. When Dominic and I made eye contact, I swear his smile grew almost automatically. Maybe it was just all the Red Bull messing with my head and I need to lay off the caffeine. Either way, I hope Kenta didn't catch it.

"It's very nice to meet both of you," Ivan said with his deep thunderous voice.

"Why don't you two show our newest employee around?" Mr. Weichert insisted.

"Well, I was about to go to one of the nap pods," Kenta began, "but if he needs showing around..."

"I can do it, Kenta," I offered.

Kenta didn't even look at me, or said thank you, before he headed upstairs to the pods.

"I'll leave you to it, Eden," Mr. Weichert said before heading back to his office.

After my supervisor disappeared down the hall, I faced my newest co-worker. I'm a married woman, so I tried my best the whole entire time to not check Dominic out. I couldn't help it, though. I took not of his tall stature and the caramel glow illiminating from his skin. Those perfect white teeth of his, whicher were revealed every thime Dominic smiled his oh-so-radiant smile. Then, I snapped out of my ogling, for a while, anyhow.

"It's hot in here," Dominic complained. "Do you mind if I take my jacket off?"

"Not at all," I assured.

Dominic removed his black leather jacket to reveal a pasty white T-shirt, but it was pretty tight on his lean torso. I felt a chill go up my spine. Kenta is pretty lean, too, but he doesn't even begin to hold a candle to Dominic. Oh, what am I comparing my husband to someone I just met for? I needed to stay focused. Suddenly, Dominic saw me staring at him. I quickly averted my attention to the floor, hoping he didn't notice.

"Yeah, I know this is too casual for a place like this, but it's laundry day for me today," Dominic informed.

I looked up and blinked at him. "Huh?"

"My T-shirt. I ran out of my more professional attire, but I promise I'll get it all dry cleaned. I mean, wasn't that the reason you were staring at me like that?"

"Oh," I chuckled. "Yeah, that shirt kind of threw me off a little bit." I knew I was lying, but what else was I supposed to say? That I only met Dominic for 30 minutes, and already I was checking him out?

"I'll wear something better tomorrow. I promise." Dominic smiled for what had to be the hundredth time today, but this one was different from the other ones he gave me. It almost seemed as if it had something more ulterior hidden. However, I decided to lighten up on the caffeine just to be sure.

"Would you like to continue with the tour?" I asked.

"To tell you the truth," Dominic began, "I already went online and did a virtual tour of the place before I transferred back in Hong Kong."

"Why did you have me give you a tour if you had already seen the place, then?"

Before Dominic could answer, Mr. Weichert met us by the long, yellow slide.

"Your first task awaits you, Dominic," he said. "I hope Eden gave you a proper tour."

"She did. and I hope to see more of her very soon." Dominic followed Mr. Weichert down the hall before flashing me one last megawatt smile. Or did he? Yep, I need to lay off the Red Bull. Deciding to cut my break short, I headed back into my office and went back to work.

"How was your tour with Dominic?" Kenta asked later that evening when we're back at home.

"Good," I responded. "It was fine. Dominic's cool."

"He is." Kenta walked over to the couch and plopped right in front of the television. He grabbed the remote off the coffee table and clicked the set on.

"Hey, I rented Bleach earlier this week," I smiled. "Would you like to watch them with me?"

Kenta glanced away from the soccer game to glare at me as if I were the dumbest person in the world.

"What's the matter?"

"Eden, we've been through this," he explained. "I already told you I'm too old to be watching anime."

"Your cousin is about a decade older than you, and he still likes watching Naruto."

"Eden, my cousin is a bum, okay? He still lives with my aunt in the basement. He's got no future. However, I do. I refuse to stoop down to his level."

"Kenta, there is nothing wrong with watching anime at our age. It's not going to kill any brain cells or anything. Anyway, we used to stay up all night long together when I came over to your house and watch them. And I've got some ice cream."

"When we were kids. I grew out of that otaku phase, and so should you. Treat it like a hot dog and ketchup (catch up), okay?"

Insulted doesn't even begin to describe how I felt that moment. I wanted to say something, but I bit my tongue and went upstairs to watch Bleach and stuff my face with rocky road ice cream by myself. I also made sure to lock the door and take the only key with me. Since that pig-headed Kenta wanted to stay on the couch so badly, he can sleep down there tonight, too.

Since I locked Kenta out of the bedroom last night, he's kept his responses to me to a minimum, which was totally fine by me. I keep trying to spend some time with him, but he kept pushing me away. Well, I've had enough.

"Good morning," I say to Kenta when I spot him in the dining room sipping his coffee. When I got no response, I went into the kitchen and fixed him a plate of croissants. After I placed the plate in front of him, Kenta almost immediately gobbled the pastries up.

Oh, I thought. He can't say anything back to me, but he'll eat my food. I should've spit in that...nevermind. I'm not that cruel.

Just when I was about to go back upstairs to get ready, I heard Kenta mutter something in Japanese under his breath. I am fluent in Japanese, since I've been around Kenta, who's half Mexican and half Japanese, pretty much all my life. The only reasons I asked him to repeat himself were 1) he was speaking to fast for me to catch it, and 2) I believe he said something rude.

"You've got something smart to say?" I challenged. "Say it so I can hear it!"

"I said it took you long enough," Kenta repeated in Japanese. "The nerve of you keeping me waiting. I was starving!"

"Excuse me?!" I responded in Japanese. "You've got some nerve talking to me like that, Kenta!"

"Well, how could you let your husband starve?"

"Trust me, I've been contemplating that. However, being the good wife you apparently don't deserve, decided not to let that happen. What has gotten into you, Kenta? I'm starting to see a side of you that I don't like. First you treat me like a roommate. Now, you've just demoted me to a servant!"

"You locked me out of the bedroom. What do you expect? This is my house, too, Eden!"

"OK, fine. I'll admit I was wrong for treating you like that, but I think I kind of had a good reason to, don't you think? I'm trying to spend some quality time with my husband, but you just constantly keep shutting me down the way you did last night."

"When I tell you I don't want to do something, you need to get out of my face and leave it alone!"

"First of all, I don't appreciate you talking to me like that! Second, when we got married, we made vows to each other to make sacrifices. What happened to that?"

Suddenly, Kenta's alarm on his watch sounded. He guzzled down the last of his coffee before telling me he'd be late for work.

"You're taking the car?" I asked, switching back to English.

"I need to get to work somehow," Kenta replied, also switching back to English.

"How am I going to get to work?" 

Kenta scoffed. "You can take a cab." With that, he slammed the door behind him, leaving my heart to sink to the floor. The boy I fell for a long time ago is obviously gone now. I hesitantly put aside some money for cab fare as I got ready for work, silently praying for strength.

The whole entire time, Kenta and I said absolutely nothing to each other. I tried to convince myself that I didn't care, but it only seemed to deepen the laceration in my heart.

During lunch break, I barely touched my curried shrimp salad. I just spent almost five minutes poking at it with my fork. Finally, just when I was about to pack my lunch for later, here comes the new guy in town, Mr. Dominic Zhai.

"Hey, Eden," Dominic greeted. "You're not going to eat your lunch?"

"Not right now. I'm not going anywhere, though. You can sit wherever you like."

Dominic placed his bag in front of the seat next to mine. He pulled out the seat and scooted up towards the table as soon as he sat down. He was going to start attacking his lunch, but Dominic noticed my solemn expression.

Everything okay?" he asked.

I gave him a weak smile and nodded.

Dominic, who clearly wasn't going to give up easily, put down his ham sandwich and gave me an anticipating look.

Giving in, I told him everything that was happening with Kenta and I along with my greatest fears of our future. After I got finished, a heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders. However, I will say I'm nearly out of breath.

"If you and Kenta really cared for one another, you would do whatever you can to get some help," Dominic advised. "They say labor and love go hand in hand, and I agree.

"Right," I added

"However, there are some situation in which no matter how hard you try to fight to keep the love in your life, it just...never seems to work.

"So, what are you getting at?"

Dominic slid his seat closer to mine and faced me. When our eyes met, I noticed a different demeanor coming from his usual bubbly nature. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Do you love Kenta?" Dominic asked.

I opened my mouth to say yes, but stopped myself because I was actually unsure about it. It shocked me at how hesitant I was.

"Do you love Kenta?" Dominic repeated.

"I-I'm not sure," I lowered my voice in caution.

"You know, even though I've only crossed paths with your husband  a handful of times, I can pretty much read him like a book. I'm guessing he was probably a fun lover in his life, correct?"

I nodded.

"But somehow, along the way, he became a stick in the mud. The things you two used to do together, such as watching anime, have stopped. You, however, remained a fun lover. His uptightness didn't influence you, surprisingly."

"Right."

"Sounds as if you two have grown apart, and, from the looks of things, it doesn't seems like there's any chance of that being repaired."

"What are you trying to say?" I'm not exactly sure if I know what's going on.

"You're an outgoing, vivacious woman. I see that aura around you. Your husband is a hard worker, but that seems to be his tragic flaw. And you say he doesn't notice you anymore?"

I nodded, speechless at his intuitiveness.

"Yeah, I really don't get the kind of impression from you that you'd be satisfied with a man like that. I mean, I honestly think you're relationship isn't going to make it."

"S-so, um." I began, but my throat suddenly became parched. I drank my water before continuing. "So, what do you suggest I do?"

"Move on," Dominic answered. "If you feel as if Kenta is taking you for granted, why are you staying with him?"

"I-I don't know," I stammered. "I honestly don't know. I guess because I feel no one else would want me."

Dominic gave me a crazy look. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately, woman? Of course you'd get another man. Plus, from what I'm hearing, you'd make a good wife. And I love watching Bleach!"

I found myself smiling, but I caught myself since I'm a married woman. 

"What's the matter?" Dominic looked genuinely concerned. Kenta hadn't looked at me like that in God knows how long.

"I'm married, Dominic." I held up my right hand to show my wedding ring.

"Happily married?"

There he goes again, stumping me with questions. But why is that? What's happening?

"I think I'm going to cut my lunch break short." I rose from the table and waved to Dominic, who's eyes never left me until I closed the door. Even then, I could still feel him staring at me. Although a door separated us, his questions were hanging on to dear life on the edge of my thoughts, making it hard for me to concentrate on my work.

Since Kenta left without me again, I had to come home in a cab. It took me a while, though, to find a cab to give me a ride home, so I ended up coming home late in the evening. When I unlocked the door, I opened it to see my husband drinking shot after shot of sake at the dining room table. That was a sign that I was in for a lecture. In an effort to avoid him, I carefully placed the keys on the coffee table and tried to hurry up the stairs.

"So!" Kenta hollered. I can tell he'd been drinking quite a bit because it sounded slightly slurred. "Look who finally decided to come home!"

"Kenta, you didn't wait for me. You took the car, so I had to take a cab home!"

Kenta rose from behind the bamboo table and somewhat stumbled towards me before sinking down in the couch.

"Okay," he began. "I'll admit I was wrong for leaving you behind, but what were you doing talking to Dominic during lunch today?"

"I can talk to whomever I wish, Kenta. I'm not your child, I'm your wife!"

"Some of our co-workers spotted you at the table with him and overheard you talking to him about me. They tell me Dominic was talking about how I wasn't good enough for you and how you hesitated when he asked you if you loved me." Kenta looked up at me, allowing me to take notice of the crimson lacing his bloodshot eyes and how watery they were becoming.

"You aren't the same man I fell in love with," I replied. "You used to care about how I felt and what I wanted. You used to spoil me rotten every chance you got. I mean, you don't have to keep spoiling me, but I'd like it if I could be appreciated more."

"So what do you want Eden?"

Dominic was right. There really is no trying to get through to him no matter what I did or said. Love is long gone in our marriage, and I have a feeling it will never return.

"You know what? Don't do anything. I'm done." I went upstairs and locked the door. Pretty soon, I heard creaking coming up the stairs, which let me know Kenta was coming after me. I heard clicking on the doorknob as Kenta tried to open the physical and emotional barrier I put between us. Then, it went silent.

"I guess I can let that low-life Dominic put up with you, then," he concluded, breaking the quiet. Kenta's voice near the end sounded as if he were next door to tears. After that, I heard the downward creaking on the stairs, signaling Kenta had left. A part of me felt awful for hurting his feelings the way I did, but I felt so relieved for finally having the courage to tell him what I was feeling. The same time Kenta went downstairs was the same time I felt the rest of the weight levitate off of my mind.

"Hello, Eden," Dominic greeted me the next morning after I came back from the meeting. Noticing how tired I was, his expression grew more somber. "Are you okay?"

I sank down in the seat next to me and let out a heavy, frustrated sigh.

His concern growing, Dominic came close to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. 

"I would be lying if I said I was," I finally responded. "Everything is falling apart."

Dominic gently touched my chin as if it were a cracked plate and lifted it so our eyes would meet. "Perhaps I can fix it."

We sat there for a good minute until Dominic leaned closer into my personal space. He lifted his hand to place it around my shoulder as his warm, whisper-soft lips brushed against mine. Before our lips could officially touch, I turned away, ashamed because I was still legally married to Kenta.

"Why'd you pull away?" he asked.

"I'm still married to Kenta," I mumbled. "You are exactly the breath of fresh air I needed to help me get through this tough time, but I am still married to Kenta."

"Are you planning on getting a divorce?"

"I am. I'm going to discuss it tonight with him. When it's finalized, we can try it again." I gave Dominic a smile, which he returned, before I left him, along with my troubles, behind in that very room.

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Thanks for reading!! 

The next story will be about a woman befriending a blind man and falling in love with him. Before the man became blind, his favorite color was purple.