“Kyle,” she almost whispered, “you’ve got to see it with my eyes…please.” Kyle looked at her, aghast at what she was saying. She wanted him to agree she had a right to go off and fuck some guy because she still considered he had deliberately had sex with Ann.
“Kyle, I’ve to get even…that’s all I want…I just want us to be equal again so we can get beyond this, honey…okay?” she said plaintively. She was pleading for understanding. It occurred to him almost instantly that only her mother would, or could, understand Peggy’s need. He shook his head.
“Peggy, look…whatever Ann and I did was totally by accident. Neither of us had any intention of cheating on you and Paul. It…was…an…accident! Nothing more, nothing less. If you go off to Chicago with the idea in mind that you’re going to sleep with some man to “get even,” you’re doing something way…way beyond what Ann and I did.
“You would be cheating on me in such a cold-hearted, calculatingly cruel, and selfish way that it would end our marriage instantly. Is that what you want, Peggy? Do you want a divorce?” Kyle asked seriously. Peggy’s face grew pale.
“NO,” she said forcefully. “I do not want a divorce. I just want us to be equals in this marriage, Kyle Aaron. We have to be equal or there will come a day I will get a divorce, do you understand that.”
“Fine,” Kyle answered. “You had a car accident in the Prairie View parking lot way back when, doing something you shouldn’t have been doing. I had an accident on Ann and Paul’s backyard deck, doing something I shouldn’t have been doing. Guess what, dear? We’re even! We’re equal again.” His tone was sarcastic. Peggy glared at him.
“Those aren’t the same and you know it,” she said hotly.
“You’re right,” Kyle retorted. “When you were buying a dress we couldn’t afford, you lied to me. You told me you wouldn’t buy that damned dress and you got caught by having a car wreck.
“That’s the big difference. You lied. I haven’t though. I haven’t lied to you about a damn thing and Ann and I were totally up front about what happened. Actually, dear, by your standards I should have done something really nasty to you for buying that dress, getting in an accident, and making our insurance rates go up. It’s not too late though. What do you think I should do to you huh?”
“I took the dress back,” Peggy said weakly. Kyle snorted.
“The damage…to my trust in you and to the car…had already been done, Peggy,” Kyle said quietly. “I repeat…what should I do to you for lying to me and wrecking the car?”
He watched as his wife shook her head helplessly. Her eyes were wide, the rage glowing deep inside them. Kyle gave up. With the training her mother had given her, Peggy could no more answer his questions than she could sprout wings and fly.
“Yeah…well…I don’t know either, Peggy,” he said somberly. “I’ll say it again…do you want a divorce?” he asked. “I’ll pretty much understand if you do,” Kyle told her. “I won’t agree with you, but I’d understand it,” he added.
Peggy shook her head again. Her eyes were brimming with tears now. He didn’t know if they were tears of rage or whether she was distraught at the mention of a divorce.