“If you want to leave now, I won’t blame you.”
I looked at him for a few seconds.
Then I got up and went to the bedroom.
A moment later he heard drawers opening.
Then he heard someone unzipping a suitcase.
When I returned, his face looked devastated.
He believed his children were right.
The money ran out and I was leaving too.
But William had no idea whose things I was packing… or what I was actually planning to do.
I returned carrying two bags.
William stared at them.
“It’s yours,” I said.
“Co?”
“You brought some clothes here yesterday. I packed them. We’ll bring the rest tomorrow.”
He looked completely confused.
I pointed at the couch.
“It’s unfolding. You’ll sleep here for now.”
“Sophie, you don’t understand. I’m telling you there might not be any money left.”
“And I’m telling you, the couch folds out.”
For the first time that evening he laughed.
But I wasn’t joking.
My apartment had one bedroom, four mismatched chairs, and a twelve-year-old car.
Some months I was counting down the days until payday.
But that was my life.
And I wasn’t ashamed of it.
That night I told him
“If you really lose everything, we live differently. I have a job. You have a pension. We’ll manage.”
He looked at me.
“What about the Italians?”
We planned a trip there.
“We won’t go.”
“Restaurants?”
“We’ll eat at home.”
“What if I can never give you the life I could give before?”
This question irritated me.
“William, I fell in love with you when I thought you were just an ordinary retiree who drank black coffee and read books. What can I tell you?”
The next morning I took him to a small clothing store near my apartment.
William was used to tailor-made clothes.
I was standing at a bargain rack where a blue shirt was hanging.
“You’ll be fine with this.”
He smiled.
This became our new life.
He stayed with me.
We cooked dinner at home.
On Saturday evenings we watched movies.
I would go to work in the mornings, and sometimes he would wait for me in the park so we could walk home together.
Eventually I took a second job, which I did two evenings a week.
William hated it.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I agree. You can’t pay for electricity with romance.”
He laughed.
But then I noticed something strange.
His children almost disappeared.
Before William supposedly lost the money, they called him non-stop.
Now they hardly ever call.
At the end of the second month I called Diane.
“Your father has been living with me for two months. Don’t you want to see him?”
She remained silent.
Then she said,
“Soon.”
Three days later all three children appeared.
Diane, James i Robert .
William was sitting in the kitchen.
I made coffee.
Nobody touched it.
Finally Diane looked at me.
“Sophie, there is something we need to tell you.”
I felt a knot in my stomach.
I looked at William.
He lowered his gaze.
“What’s going on?”
Diane took a deep breath.
“Our father didn’t lose anything.”
I looked at her.
“Co?”
“The house is fine. The business is fine. The investments are fine.”
There was complete silence in the room.
I turned to William.
“Did you lie?”
„Sophie…”
“You lied to me for two months?”
Diane paused.
“It was our idea. We wanted to know if you’d stay if you thought the money was gone.”
My hands started shaking.
Not because I was happy that he was still rich.
Because I was hurt.
I worked overtime for two months.
I sat and counted bills.
I was worried about food, electricity and rent.
I tried to protect William from feeling ashamed.
And all this time…
They tested me.
I entered the bedroom.
This time I really packed my suitcase myself.
When I returned, William had turned pale.
“Sophie, please.”
I looked at him.
“I passed your financial test.”
Then I picked up the suitcase.
“But you failed mine.”
Diane started crying.
