I Stopped Chasing Him After Ten Years And Never Looked Back Chatper 04
In the third week, Jared’s mom came to visit.
Karen comes two or three times a year, staying for a week each time.
She’s not a bad person, but she has a gift for saying the most cutting things in the most offhand tone.
The night she arrived, she glanced around the living room.
“Tisha, why haven’t you been tidying up the house lately? You used to keep this place spotless, didn’t you?”
In the past, I’d deep-clean the entire house three days before every visit.
I’d polish the kitchen until it shone, fold the towels by color, and even sort Cora’s toys into storage bins.
This time, I didn’t. It wasn’t on purpose.
I just went to the gym after work, and when I got home, I spent time drawing, so I ran out of time.
“I’ve been busy lately.” I said.
Karen didn’t respond, but I noticed her glance at Jared.
I knew that look all too well.
Translated, it meant “Look at your wife. She’s way out of line these days..”
For once, Jared spoke up. “Mom, it’s fine, the house is clean enough.”
Karen smiled. “I didn’t say anything.”
The next day, while Jared was out, Karen pulled me aside in the kitchen.
“Tisha, is there something wrong between you and Jared?”
“No.”
“Then why aren’t you talking to him anymore? You used to follow him around chatting every day, didn’t you?”
My hand didn’t stop chopping vegetables.
“Mom, you were the one who said it. You said I was too clingy, that men need space.”
Karen’s smile froze for a second.
“I said that for your own good. In a marriage, a woman being too forward isn’t good. You need to be more reserved.”
I tipped the chopped vegetables onto a plate.
“See? I’m being very reserved now.”
Karen stared at me for a moment. “Young lady, why are you talking to me like that?”
“I’m not, Mom. I’m really learning to be reserved.”
She opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing more.
As I turned to wash the knife, I heard her mutter quietly behind my back.
“Getting more and more unruly.”
In the past, hearing those words would have made my heart race, and I’d have second-guessed myself, wondering what I’d done wrong.
Now, I just wanted to laugh.
“Unruly” just meant I was no longer easy to manipulate.
Karen left after five days. Before she left, she pulled Jared onto the balcony and talked to him for fifteen minutes.
I was in the living room, drawing with Cora, and couldn’t hear what they said.
But when Jared came back in, his expression was complicated.
He stood next to me, like he wanted to say something. I didn’t look up.
He stood there for ten seconds, then left.
That night, he asked me a question first.
“Have you been mad at me lately?”
I was drawing in the study and didn’t even look up. “No.”
“Then why aren’t you talking to me anymore?”
I set down my pen.
What a funny question.
I chased him for ten years, talking to him dozens of times a day, and he thought I was annoying.
I’d been quiet for three weeks, and now he was asking.
“It’s not that I’m not talking to you.” I went back to drawing, “It’s just that I realized there’s nothing to say.”
He froze. He knew that line all too well.
He’d said it to me at least a hundred times over the past ten years.
He must have remembered, too, because his expression shifted.
But he said nothing else, turned, and left.
Exactly like the thousand times he’d turned away before.
Only this time, I wasn’t the one left standing there.