It becomes hard not to.

As Ella and Thomas shared an order of garlic bread for an entrée, the smile she’d first shown Richard turned into another. And then another. Until Thomas had to bring Ella’s focus back to him and the table.

“Honey,” he said trying to get her attention. “Honey!”

“Oh yes, Dear. What is it?” Ella asked as she snapped her gaze back onto Thomas.

“I was telling you we’ve been invited to the Sargent’s house for a cookout this weekend,” he told her for the second time.

“That’s lovely. I can’t wait to see Christine. I’ll make my potato salad.”

Ella’s focus was back on her husband until the main course arrived and she ordered another glass of wine to go with that. It was her fourth for the evening and Ella was beginning to feel flushed and more than a little bit tipsy.

Richard, at the table behind Thomas, had ordered oysters and as Ella watched him suck the briny delicacy from the shells, she found herself sighing.

“Who are you looking at?” Thomas asked. He was getting annoyed and turned to look at who was behind him.

Ella quickly grabbed his forearm and prevented him from turning around to see. “Don’t worry about anything. It’s our date night remember. Let’s just enjoy it.”

Thomas did his best to relax and fight the growing sense of anger and resentment that was brewing up inside him. He’s top ready to blow when later as they were finishing their meals, he heard the group behind them laugh and Ella laughing along too as if she’d been listening in on their every word.

He sent the waiter away with a gruff brush of his hand when he came to see if either of them wanted to look over the dessert menu. His wife had all but started ignoring him and was making full-on bedroom eyes with however it was behind him.

“But I want dessert,” Ella said loud enough for all the tables around them to hear when Thomas didn’t give them a chance to see the menus.

Thomas could feel the walls of the restaurant closing in on them. He felt hot and his mouth had gone dry. Ella recognised the warning signs of her husband’s PTSD and knew it was time for them to leave. The two men sitting with Richard in front of her had left also, leaving just the older gent openly staring at Ella’s womanly body in her figure-hugging black dress.

“Why don’t you go and pay and I’ll get the car ready?” Ella offered.

She was more than a little unsteady on her feet as she stood up. Swaying on her high heels and having to lean on Richard’s table to keep her from falling over.

Thomas closed his eyes and counted backwards from thirty like he’d been taught to in his counselling sessions. Breathing slower, he first went to the restroom to splash some water on his hot face before heading to the counter to pay for their dinner.

The air had turned cold while they’d been inside. The sweat that had been clinging to Thomas’s back turning chill and sending an icy pulse running all the way up to his spine. He’d know that feeling before. It was like the brief split second before an RPG was fired at their Humvee or an IED was about to go off. Light’s flashed at the corners of Thomas’s eyes and his vision sway. Darkness threatened to swallow him and it was his turn to lean against the car next to him to prevent himself from keeling over. He needed to find out where Ella had parked the car earlier that evening.