Weekly Drabble #285: Cooperate or Defect (Patreon)

With EBB's prompt of 'decisions', we get a drabble-sized drabble (will wonders never cease) about a man and his (in)decision. Enjoy!

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Cooperate or Defect:

“Just once in your life could you make a decision?!”

Henry didn’t think he was indecisive. He was careful. He weighed his options thoughtfully and if the outcome wasn’t that big a deal to him, he’d defer to whoever was with him. It was polite, he thought. If it mattered, he’d say so. That seemed reasonable to him. He’d never minded the occasional comment or poke about it. Not until lately.

Lately, Patricia seemed to find fault with everything he did. He spent too much time at work. Now that the kids were a little more grown, he’d asked her to find a job so he wouldn’t have to work such long hours and could spend more time with them. That hadn’t gone over well. She complained about his hobbies, so he tried to get more involved in hers, but she said that was too smothering. It was this, it was that and he felt like he couldn’t win. The thing that Patricia really seemed to hate was his ‘indecisiveness’.

She’d ask him something like where he wanted to go for dinner and when he said it didn’t much matter to him, she’d sigh deeply and say the same thing over again. Just once in your life could you make a decision?

So he’d tried that. Then he found out all his choices were the wrong ones, so he went back to being indecisive. He didn’t know how to appease her any more. Even this hiking trip to the cliffs was for her, with her friends Rachel and Adam. He hated hiking and he didn’t care for Rachel or Adam. The former was too entitled and the latter too smug, but he kept that to himself.

Thankfully, they were slow hikers, telling Patricia and Henry to go ahead and they’d meet them up at the top. Henry was glad for that; he’d wanted some time alone with Patricia this weekend and without Rachel and Adam lollygagging, it didn’t seem like he’d have the chance.

They reached the cliffs a little before noon. It was an impressive sight, looking out over the bay. Far below, the waves surged and churned with the fury of spring tides, battering the stone walls and rocky outcrops with spray. Occasionally one would hit hard enough to send a mist all the way up the cliffs, pelting the grass and filling the clear, cold air with shimmering mist. It was beautiful and it made the walk to get here worthwhile.

“I’m leaving you,” Patricia said abruptly.

Henry stared agog. She laid it all out for him. She’d been having an affair with his brother’s best friend. They’d met at Henry’s sister-in-law’s baby shower over a year ago and been hooking up since then. The days he’d been working late and the weekends he’d put in, Patricia had been in the arms of another man. She’d brought him over to their house. She’d had him in their bed. He was a family lawyer, she said. He made better money than Henry. She was going to apply for full custody of the children and with his hours – hours he worked to support her and the kids – she was going to get it, she said.

She said it wasn’t even about the money, but that her lover ‘knew what he wanted’. He didn’t dither, he didn’t try to appease everyone. He was a man, she said. He could make a decision. She turned her back to Henry, looking out at the ocean.

Henry just stared. He tried to talk to Patricia, but she wouldn’t have it. The only thing she told him was‘I’ve made my decision.’

Patricia was standing close to the edge, her arms crossed. Her back was still to him. The waves beat against the rocks, roughly pulling back and dragging whatever was within their grasp deeper out to sea before throwing it against the cliffs once more. There were warning signs posted along the trail. The water was deep, but it was too rough for diving. Just last year someone had tried. They never recovered the body. Spring tides were even worse. The highest and the fastest, deadly even to a trained swimmer. Patricia was a dog-paddler.

“Patricia...” he tried one last time. She wouldn’t even acknowledge him.

Rachel and Adam would be here soon.

It was time to make a decision.