Richard blames himself. (C)

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Perl takes a shower and gets dressed. Almost an hour has passed by when she is done 'cleaning herself up and has made it down to the kitchen'. Despite what he had just witnessed, Richard is still in love with Perl. When they met, she was the girl of his dreams, and he would be hard-pressed not to admit that was still the case even now. As a result, over the last hour, he found himself wondering what he did wrong to cause her to cheat on him.

Richard, in a pleading voice, “Perl, just tell me why. Everything I do is to give you and our children a better life, so what did I do wrong to make you want to cheat on me?"

Perl looks at her husband as tears run down his face, and she answers, "That’s the problem. You're gone every week. You are so focused on giving us a better life that you are never around to live it with me or to satisfy my needs." With a voice that was gentler than Richard had expected.

Richard felt the blood rush to his face. He tried to tally the hours he’d spent at work, the flights, the conferences, the endless presentations to rooms full of the same interchangeable men in suits. All of it had felt necessary, at the time, to keep the mortgage paid and the kids in private lessons and the fridge stocked with organic produce. Now, hearing Perl say it, he wondered if every business trip had been a slow withdrawal from their collective account of affection.

He clung to indignation, **** to salvage some measure of dignity. “I have always done right by you,” he said. “I’ve never even so much as looked at another woman. I haven’t missed a single birthday or anniversary. I send you flowers every time I’m away.”

Perl smiled, and it hurt him. Not a cruel smile, but the kind she gave him when he missed the point entirely. “Flowers are nice,” she said. “But I need you here, not just dropping in between flights or showing up with gifts as an apology for leaving. You don’t know the names of our children’s friends. You’re not a bad man, Richard. You’re just… absent.”

“But…”

Perl “No but Richard… I… no, we need to feel seen. Like you, a part of our lives, not just a passing visitor.”

After forty-five minutes of going back and forth, Richard agrees to cut his travels down by half. They lived a happy life (at least Richard thought everyone one happy) until he caught Mr. Davidson once again with his wife in his bed.