3: The Dream

Jessica shook her head in the bathtub, knowing that Dylan usually made love to her in the bathroom whenever they bathed together as a couple. Now, he was avoiding her.

She resumed bathing in the white bathtub with her sponge, soap, and water. After she finished, she rinsed her body and walked out of the bathroom into the bedroom to dress.

Dylan had put on his white robe and was sitting on the bed, feeling tipsy from the alcohol he had drunk at Rosie’s home.

When Dylan saw Jessica step out of the bathroom, he immediately looked away and stared at the wall as he lay down to sleep.

Dylan turned his back to Jessica and faced the wall. She frowned at her husband’s behavior, knowing that he was truly avoiding her.

Jessica walked over to the wardrobe to take out a nightgown. She tried hard not to cry because she did not want to divorce Dylan.

She knew that he had been behaving strangely lately, even before he had been absent from home for two days. She wondered, *Who is the new woman in his life?*

Jessica stood beside the wardrobe for several hours, searching for a nightgown to wear. Even after she had touched the white nightgown she wanted, she remained standing there, lost in thought, as hot tears streamed down her face.

Jessica finally snapped out of her trance, took out the white nightgown she had been holding, and put it on. She then looked back at her sleeping husband on the bed.

Her eyes moved to the divorce papers on the headboard. She shook her head sadly and walked over to the bed to join her husband.

Dylan was fast asleep, but when Jessica climbed onto the bed, he felt her weight press against it. His blue eyes opened slightly, and he stared at the pretty yellow woman beside him.

When Dylan realized that she was his wife—the woman he was about to divorce—and saw that she was sobbing, Dylan sat up on the bed and sleepily asked, “What’s wrong, babe?”

Jessica sniffled and wanted to reply, but Dylan sleepily lay back down and fell asleep again. The alcohol had not yet worn off. He was exhausted because he had spent much of the time since leaving his office at five o’clock with Rosie in her room, and he needed to rest.

Dylan turned his back to Jessica, adjusted his pillow beneath his head, and rested his head on it.

He resumed sleeping while Jessica blinked away her tears. She sat on the bed and looked at her sleeping husband for a moment.

Not wanting to accept that they would divorce the following day, Jessica tried to be the good wife she was. She wrapped her left arm around Dylan’s waist and moved closer to him, with his back facing her.

She cuddled up beside him and inhaled his manly scent as she hugged him, seeking warmth from him.

Jessica rested her head on Dylan’s left arm and caressed his face and jaw.

Dylan inhaled Jessica’s sweet, floral scent, and his blue eyes opened slightly again. He sprang up from the bed, even in his drunken state, and pushed her arm away.

Dylan looked at Jessica angrily and asked her, “What’s wrong with you, Jessica? Why don’t you want me to sleep tonight?”

Dylan sat on the bed with Jessica and noticed that she was not wearing a bra beneath her large breasts. Her white nightgown was almost transparent and revealed her breasts.

Dylan looked away, and Jessica replied, “I want you, Dylan.”

“But I don’t want you anymore, Jessica. I want a divorce, and you should sign the divorce papers tomorrow and leave! I’m not joking about it,” Dylan snapped.

He took his pillow from the bed, stepped down drunkenly, and put on his black slippers.

When Jessica tried to stop him from leaving by holding on to his pillow, Dylan snatched it from her hands. He walked out of the room, leaving her alone in the master bedroom.

She cried out, “No, sweetheart! Wait! Where are you going?”

Jessica hurriedly stepped down from the bed and chased after Dylan as he exited the sitting room upstairs and went downstairs to sleep in the guest room.

“Dylan! Open this door!” Jessica stood in front of the guest-room door and banged heavily on it, asking Dylan to unlock it. He had locked it from the inside.

Dylan ignored Jessica and went to the bed in the guest room to sleep because she had tried to seduce him in their bedroom.

“Dylan! Open this door now! I'm your wife!” Jessica cried as she stood in front of the guest-room door and banged heavily on it.

She looked at the clock in the corridor and saw that it was after midnight.

Jessica shook her head and returned upstairs to the master bedroom to sleep alone. She did not want to wake their children. The master bedroom was the largest room in the mansion, and she walked toward the king-sized bed, which was covered with a white bedspread. She climbed onto it slowly. She lay on the bed and tried to sleep.

It was Wednesday night, and Jessica knew that her two children would be going to school the following Thursday morning. They attended a day school, and she knew that she had to sleep on time so she could wake up very early the next morning and prepare them for school.

But sleep was far from her eyes. She continued crying on the bed and thinking about the new woman who had entered her husband’s life to destroy her marriage and break up her previously happy home.

Jessica continued thinking about how she could lose weight to impress Dylan and become the slim woman he wanted again.

She knew that she had tried to lose weight before, but it had not been easy because she loved eating and sleeping. She was always at home and no longer went to work.

Jessica had spoken to her best friend, Esther Friday, about her plans to lose more weight. Esther had advised her that the best way to lose weight was to go to the gym.

Yet, although Jessica exercised daily, losing weight had not been easy for her.

Jessica sniffled on the bed and fell asleep. She dreamed that a beautiful, short, fair-skin woman walked into her home with a large black traveling box filled with clothes. The short woman was not Jessica, because she was taller.

The woman looked at Jessica irritably and ordered her to serve her meals.

Jessica saw herself serving the beautiful, slim woman in her dream. The woman sent her away from her husband’s home, and Jessica tried to plead with her.

“Please, you cannot send me away from my husband’s house. Leave Dylan alone so that he can look at me, his wife.”

But the woman replied, “No. I have known Dylan for longer than you have, and your time in his life is over. So go away.”

Jessica saw Dylan throw her box of clothes outside their matrimonial home. He did not even care that their children were present. He told her, “Leave my house, Jessica. This marriage is over between us. Go away and get out of my life!”

“No, Dylan! Please, don’t send me away. I love you. Please, Dylan!”

Jessica continued struggling on the bed in her sleep. She lay on the luxurious white bed in the master bedroom, still dreaming.

She continued pleading with Dylan in her dream. “Please, Dylan, don’t send me away. Please.”

Jessica watched as Dylan rushed toward her and dragged her away by her left wrist, throwing her outside their mansion.

She cried out to him even more. “Please, Dylan! You cannot send me away, Dylan! Dylan! Dylan, please!”

“I’m here, Jessica! Wake up!”

Dylan shook Jessica vigorously to wake her. He sat beside her on the bed and shook her again and again, trying to rouse her from her nightmare.

After waking up in the guest room, where he had slept earlier that night, Dylan had a headache. He remembered returning home with the divorce papers Rosie Andrew had given him to take to Jessica. He had asked Jessica to sign them.