“You ate yours,” she said. “Now stay away from mine.”
She was talking about a bowl of cherries.
We’d bought a bag of tart cherries at the Big Box Store, and I promptly wolfed down my half.
Then I ate half of what was left.
That’s when my wife put her foot down. The survivors went into a bowl on the counter, where they would sit all week.
“Don’t even think about eating them,” she told me.
How could I not?
Every time I walked by, I wrestled with my conscience, and all too often my conscience lost and I filched a few. Before long, those few added up to a noticeable dent.
She claimed she was letting them ripen. I didn’t buy it. Granted, the cherries were tart when we bought them, but I know my wife, and I suspected deeper motives.
She was testing me.
Love is never a constant. It ebbs and flows, and from time to time we’re compelled to take its measure. But this test was unfair. I love her a lot, but do I love her more than cherries? Honestly, I don’t know.
Some things we share.
- Wine is always poured into two equal glasses.
- Pie is cut by one of us and served by the other.
- Whenever I buy a candy bar at the checkout, I buy two: one for her and one for me.
But some things are harder to share.
I eat faster than she does. I can’t help it. I grew up in a large family where grab-and-gobble was a matter of survival. So when she isn’t feeling generous, she knows to either buy things I don’t like or hide them.
She once admitted to hiding Girl Scout cookies in a Kotex box.
Which brings us back to the cherries.
This time she didn’t hide them. She left them out on the counter, alone with me, for an entire week while she was at work.
So, do I love her more than cherries? And what is love if it’s never been put to the test?
Some questions should never be asked and never be answered. So I went back to the Big Box Store, bought a bag of ripe cherries, and emptied them into a bowl on the counter, right next to hers.
“These are mine,” I told her when she got home. “Don’t even think about touching them.”
She glared at me for a moment, then asked the obvious: “Are you testing me?”
