"Would she notice?"

He looked at the door and wondered, if he left her would she stop him, would she even notice? He didn’t think so.

She sat absorbed in her novel, her hair twisted up in some sort of cloth covered, rubber tie.

“I brewed a fresh pot of coffee do you-“

“No thanks.”

She’d cut off his question and didn’t even look up to acknowledge him.

He poured himself a cup of the hot brew and sat across from her at the kitchen table.

How many years had they been together? Ten? Twelve?

He took a sip of his coffee and thought about it and nearly choked when he realized it had been closer to twenty.

Twenty? That was absurd, it couldn't have been that long, but then again the beginning years had been happy and they'd flown by…the last five had been anything but. It wasn’t easy to admit they’d fallen out of love, harder still to find a cause. Time just hadn’t been friendly to their feelings or maybe he was just looking to blame some nebulous force when it was their own fault. They’d grown apart, found outside interests and neither of them had attempted to address the situation as it was happening.

He glanced up at a picture on the shelf, taken maybe eighteen years ago and the smiling, young couple looked like strangers to him but his heart squeezed with remorse. It had been a love worth saving so why hadn’t they tried?

“It’s a nice day for a walk on the beach.”

“Hmmm.”

Her non committal sound was barely audibly as she continued to read and he wasn’t sure she’d even heard what he’d said.

“What if we took a walk on the beach and had lunch at that boardwalk restaurant we used to-”

“No thanks.”

She answered quickly apparently wanting him to leave her alone as her eyes continued to move across the words on the page.

Why bother trying. He got up and tossed the contents of his coffee down the drain. Five lousy years was five too long, he decided.

“I’m going out if you care.”

“Okay,” she mumbled

“I may not come back,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Okay,” she said reflexsively not truly hearing him and her eyes never moved to his, focused still on the book she was reading.

He grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

As he walked across the main the street towards his parked car, his mind was screaming at him to do what he’d said and never go back. Get in his car and drive was all he wanted to do.

He let the engine idle for a moment before he shifted into gear and peeled out of the space and onto the road. It stretched endlessly before him as he wondered if she would even notice he was gone.