Fair is Fair

Peter gripped the steering wheel as if his life depended on it. His white knuckles peered back at him intently from 10 and 2. He stared out at the road, the high beams cutting through the darkeness, lighting up the highway ahead. His mouth was dry and he couldn’t seem to think straight. It was all he could do to keep his focus on not letting the car swerve back and forth. In reality it had only been about thirty seconds since those words had irrrevocably come out of his wife’s mouth, but to him, it felt like time had slowed down to a crawl.

“Did you hear what I said?” she asked, as if she had just told him the time of day instead of shattering his heart to peices.

“Leslie, I ... I just don’t know how to repond to that,” he practically choked out.

“Well, be that as it may, I am not happy anymore. If I was happy, I never would have done what I did.”

Peter heared Leslie’s cellphone vibrate from inside her purste. In a matter of seconds, she had her phone in her hands. While she was focused on the phone, he took a moment to glance at her. The light from her phone revealed a face that held no visable emotion at all.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Peter and Leslie had met three years previous, and their relationship could only be described as a whirlwind. They had been introduced by a common friend and from the very first date became inseperable. Even though they lived in adjoining towns, she worked close to where he lived and she took every possible chance to end up at his place. He didn’t mind at all, and before long, it was decided that she was there so often that she should just move in. Peter knew that he had never been happier than he was at that time, so even though he had never thought he wanted to get married, he decided to propose. He had selected the perfect place, found the perfect ring, and had written the perfect speech, so when she didn’t immediatly reply he found himself very confused.

“It’s just...” Leslie began, “what if we aren’t really meant for eachother? What if we are ruining things for the people we are really supossed to be with?”

Leslie said this with a huge smile on her face, so Peter knew instantly she was only playing with him, trying to keep him in suspense. He decided to play along.

“Well, what do we do about this then?”

Leslie reached into her pocket and took out a silver coin. “I say we keep things fair. How about we let fate decide. She into into his eyes with a smile he knew he would remember for the rest of his life, and flipped the coin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Do you love him?” It came out as a mere whisper. It was a simple question, but he wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the answer.

She closed her eyes and her phone fell to her lap. She slowly exhaled, as if she was considering her words very carefully.

“I don’t know.” she finally answered. “He definetley had something I needed, something you haven’t been able to provide in a long time. I don’t know if I want to be with him. I only know that I don’t want to be with you.”

Even before he knew what he was doing, His right hand shot down between them releasing both of their seatbelts at the same time. The seatbelt alarm began ringing, creating an audible quality to the alarm he saw in her face.

“What are you doing?” She screamed at him.

He stared into her eyes, with a smile he knew she would remember for the rest of her life.

“I’m going to keep things fair. Let’s let fate decide.”

He let go of the wheel and slammed his foot down on the gas. The car kept going straight for a few moments, until it hit a bump which sent them carreening across the median, into the path of an oncoming semi.