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Text Box: Everyone always said that Adrienne was the most beautiful baby they had ever laid eyes on, and she went through life trading on that beauty. Everything she had ever received was tied to her beauty: boyfriends, grades, jobs, friends and enemies. In her eyes, her beauty defined her existence. Her immense beauty stunted her growth as a person and a woman, and she became a caricature of one of those models stuck on the pages of Vogue, Glamour or King. The first time my eyes were blessed to gaze upon my future wife’s beauty I was instantly seemingly hypnotized and unable to speak. I’m not a shy man and quite extroverted by most standards, but in her presence I was once again that little fat kid no one would play with so books became my friends. There words spoke to me when no one else could find the time. Her eyes were the color of a setting sun, dark and moody and instantly I would feel revealed in her presence. She had the skin of an alien so soft to the touch that she couldn’t be from this world. She was browned to perfection by a loving sun. When she smiled my own personal traveling orchestra played music in my head, and I danced to it every night. In time I was able to find my voice, and to this day I’m still not sure why she agreed to marry me when I proposed to her while we strolled through Central Park. It was a day during the fall season created specifically by a higher Text Box: have a good life together was her rational for being in a loveless marriage. He had given her a good life and she wanted for nothing, but material possessions can’t fill the soul when love is the only thing it craves to feel. When David proposed to her that day in Central Park, the ambiance of the moment so overwhelmed Adrienne that she really thought she was in love with him and not all the material things he could give her. Caught up in all the splendor of a whirlwind courtship, her friends and family thinking she had found the perfect guy, and a need to be in love led Adrienne down the aisle. When the priest exclaimed anyone knowing why this couple shouldn’t be wed please stand up or forever hold your peace; Adrienne wished one of her friends could do for her what she was unable to do for herself-put an end to this travesty of a marriage. No one objected and Adrienne became the first Mrs. David Palmer. David now knew what he believed in his heart a year ago. Every picture in their wedding album was an added dagger into his already broken heart, but he had been blinded by her beauty and instantly fell in love with Adrienne. He wined and dined her and thought they were in love. It was still dark outside and David had given up on sleep. He stood bare feet on the cold kitchen floor waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. The winter air swirled angrily outside, Text Box: and every few minutes would slam angrily into the glass windows. David was oblivious to all of this, and his only thought was about Adrienne who was still fast asleep. At that very moment, Adrienne was dreaming of being in love; a love that she hadn’t found with David. David stood in the kitchen he had built drinking his coffee and knowing the family he had dreamed of having with his wife was now just a fantasy. The woman lying in his bed was a stranger. She was a good woman, but she didn’t have the courage to speak the truth of her heart. She never loved him and would never be in love with him. Hearing his thoughts out loud in his mind made the truth of his sham marriage too much for David to bear. The coffee mug slipped from his hands, splattering all over the white tiles and it was now covered in black. It had been a gift from an artist friend, and lay ruined, broken into a several tiny pieces just like his heart. He left the mess there and would clean it later. His first priority was to clean up the mess he had made of his life, and he headed to the bedroom to do just that. Dean Jéan-Pierre 8:00pm 10-8-05
Text Box: power to celebrate an occasion like this. The sun waved goodbye to the day and lingered between the trees to watch its handiwork. The foliage was even more beautiful than all the colors of the rainbow on this day. God was here in this moment. It’s been a year since our marriage, and I’m flipping through the pages of our wedding album. I notice for the first time that her smile had lost its beauty on our wedding day. In its place was a smile I didn’t recognize, but it was still beautiful just not as affecting to my heart. Page after page was a woman I didn’t recognize, but before God and friends my undying love I had pledged to her. What had I missed that allowed me to miss the obvious? But, no answers would come on this night and I fell into a restless sleep our backs facing each other. Adrienne pretended to be asleep almost every night now to avoid having sex with her husband. These days he no longer even tried to touch her or engage her in conversation. He would often work in the living room eating takeout, and left her alone to whatever thoughts she has having. She felt trapped in a marriage she didn’t want to be in, but she didn’t want to break her husband’s heart. He’s a good man who loves me, and even if I’m not in love with him we can