Slice of Life

Adam was rudely awoken by the screeching of magpies from outside of his window. Despite his grogginess, he admired the magpies. Although they have the reputation of going after whatever shiny thing attracted their attention, they are entirely monogamous. They mate for life and once their partner dies, they remain alone until their own demise. Perhaps it is morbid, but it is a beautiful sentiment nonetheless.

This thought was interrupted by the stirring of Adams own partner, Rachel. He admired her, lying next to him with a glimmer of sunlight bouncing off her rosy cheek. So peaceful. So quiet. A stark contrast for the previous night as they had been out drinking with friends, the first time they had found the time to leave the house in some time. Adam worked long days in an office job and Rachel was a freelance artist but had been out of work for some time, not through lack of trying, in fact quite the opposite. Rachel had dedicated almost all of her free time to revitalising her portfolio though this bore the consequence of spending days upon days locked in her home studio working. This morning was perhaps the first time they had woken together in weeks.

Adam leant in towards her and against her ear gently whispered, "good morning."

Rachel stirred, rubbed her ocean blue eyes and stared into Adams before replying, "hey you" in a similarly gentle tone.

"There's still cake for Hannahs party. Fancy a cheat day?" Adam asked.

"Screw it, I can afford to take a day off." Rachel replied, clearly struggling to justify her answer. Though without much hesitation Adam had leaped up to retrieve the cake from the kitchen. He returned with two plates, a slice of chocolate cake on each though Rachel seemed uninterested and instead eagerly browsed her phone.

"Rach? Cake?" Adam enquired.

"Hmm? Oh right yes, thank you." Rachel half-heartedly responded.

Adam handed over what was clearly the smaller piece, perhaps half the size of his own. Rachel stared at the plate as Adam climbed back into bed ready to feast on his significant portion.

"What the hell is this?" Rachel asked, somewhat aggressively.

"What do you mean? It's cake? You said yes to cake." Adam replied confusedly, innocent to the tension building.

"I said yes to cake, a nice slice of cake. This is barely a sliver, and look at yours?" Rachel tried to play it off playfully but she was clearly pissed off.

"Oh. Erm, you just didn't seem interested?" Adam justified.

"So you took that to mean you could have the bigger slice." Rachel scowled at Adam, clearly he should have left her to sleep.

"I didn't cut it like this on purpose, here take my cake, it's fine." Adam held his plate out to Rachel, offering it in place of hers however she rejected it, brushing away the gesture like a swarm of flies.

"Except you clearly did, you just said I wasn't interested so you gave yourself more cake! I don't want yours now, the message is clear, I definitely don't need any extra cake."

"What? No I- what?" Adam was taken aback, how did this escalate so quickly? All over a piece of cake?

"Maybe you're right Adam, maybe I could stand to lose a bit of weight, what with me 'constantly lounging about the house'."

Adam needed to manage the situation before all his past mistakes came to bite him in the arse. "Rachel I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that you're always here, this is besides the point anyway."

"No! It's not! It's all the same issue Adam, you don't respect me! I'm here because I'm working on my art, you said you would support me in that, why aren't you supporting me?", Tears welled up in Rachels eyes at this point. A deep emotional wound was starting to show and first thing in the morning, Adam couldn't keep his head straight enough to do anything but lash out.

"I am supporting you! I work 60 hour weeks to support YOU, I cook and I clean to support YOU. I supported you through all of this but Rach, I have my own pain. It's not always about you." Adam knew his mistake the moment he had made it but he was not the man to back down, if this was a fight, he intended to win.

"So now I'm selfish?" Rachel pursued.

"Yeah! Recently, yeah." Adam delivered, almost spitefully.

Rachel looked in disgust at Adam, at herself, at the two of them as a couple. How did it get to this? When did they become these people? She wanted to apologise, but she knew Adam, she knew how ruthless he could be when he was on the edge but if she were to point this out, his emasculation would only make him strike out harder. Rachel decided not to say anything and thus silence filled the room. That glimmer from the sun had faded now, leaving the room feeling drained and dreary.

"I'm not happy." Rachel finally said.

"Clearly." Adam snapped in response.

"We were happy once weren't we? We were a good couple?" Rachel spoke softly, almost as though she didn't really want to be heard. Understandably so because upon hearing this, Adam made eye contact, staring again into those ocean blue eyes only now there was something unrecognisable behind them.

"... Were...?" Adam replied after a moment of introspection.

"Look at us Adam, we're fighting over cake, there's clearly something wrong here. Something missing." Rachel said, hinting at a point that took Adam a moment to grasp.

There was another moment of silence until Adam finally mumbled "something missing.." to which they both now know what they were talking about.

"I know you blame me." Rachel said tearfully, her voice tripping over her emotional state.

"Come on Rach.." Adam tried to interject but Rachel needed to make this point.

"I did everything right, I went to the mummy and me classes, I did the exercises, ate right, didn't smoke or drink but I still lost her..." Rachel was breaking down now. The angry had morphed into sadness and that sadness into sorrow.

"Rachel-"

"I lost our little girl." Rachel burst into tears, leaning into her own lap, staring at this piece of cake in front of her. Adam leaned in and put his arm around her, tears swelling in his own eyes now.

"This cake wasn't ours to share, it should've been hers." Rachel said, managing to compose herself between uncontrollable sobs. Adam merely held her as she cried, trying himself to stay composed though with tremendous struggle.

"I never blamed you Rach, I know it's not your fault." Said Adam between cracks in his voice.

"Oh please, you can't even look at me. I know you escape to work to get away from me, from here." Rachel admitted, "You can't stand to be alone around me. Better yet I understand why, you think I don't blame myself? You think I don't go over it every day in mind head?"

"I never pretended this was easy for both us but we had to move on. She.. she died, we can't change that."

"But Adam, everything changed, we changed. Our relationship, it-"

"It broke. It broke both of us, it broke our relationship."

"So why are you still here?" Rachel asked indifferently. Their relationship may be broken but there is still love on both sides. Rachel sat anticipating an answer, a good reason from Adam as to why he stayed, though Adam himself could come up with nothing for some time. The couple sat in silence, breathing each other in for what felt like may well be the last time.

"Who's going to feed you chocolate cake?" Asked Adam desperately.

"Maybe I'm just not hungry anymore." Responded Rachel, solemnly, "Maybe the cake was never for me."