They went to a restaurant near Isla's house. Once they found a table, Isla called Aron as they waited for their food.
When Isla got off the phone, Sheryl asked Isla whether Aron was still working or not, so they could ask him to join them for dinner.
"Well, don't mind him. He's been very busy these days. Let's just have dinner on our own. He will be fine," Isla said and sat down. After a long day at work, she felt so hungry that she could eat everything on that table by herself.
They finished their scrumptious dinner very quickly. After they dropped Phoebe off, Isla drove Shirley and the kids to her home.
When they got inside, Sheryl noticed that not only Aron wasn't home, but also their child weren't there, so she looked at Isla in confusion. Isla rubbed her head and smiled. "Aron and I have been pretty busy these days, so I asked my mom to babysit the child for a while. And Aron just told me that he needed to work overtime tonight and would be coming home late, so it's just you and me tonight. Let's party tonight and have some fun!"
Isla chuckled and Sheryl was amused by her laughter.
"You really don't look like a married woman, Isla. Sometimes you act like a child!" All of a sudden, a thought entered Sheryl's mind. She had read something on a website, and it stuck with her. It went like this: if a woman acted more like a child after she got married, it meant that her husband loved her so much that he didn't mind treating her like a child. He cared for her so much that he would tolerate all her childish behavior.
Having realized how happy and lucky Isla was, Sheryl couldn't help but think about her own marriage. After she got married to Charles, Sheryl became tougher as the years went by. Sheryl was tired of everything and she didn't want to know whether it was Charles' fault or hers.
It was already quite late when they finished dinner. Sheryl tucked the children in after she helped them wash their faces and brush their teeth.
Sheryl told the children a bedtime story, but they felt asleep in the middle of it. Before she walked out of the bedroom, Sheryl gave them each a kiss on the forehead.
When Sheryl walked out of the bedroom, she saw Isla drinking wine in the living room. Sheryl sat next to her, grabbed her glass and drank it all down in one gulp.
"You can't enjoy this by yourself," Sheryl said and poured herself another glass of wine.
But this time Isla grabbed her glass and stopped Sheryl. Isla felt sorry for Sheryl and said, "Sher, I am sorry for you, really. I think the reason why your marriage with Charles fell apart is because of Melissa and Leila. You can't give in and let them win. You need to fight back!"
The more Isla spoke, the angrier she became, but Sheryl didn't care to fight anymore. Sheryl knew that Melissa didn't like her and Leila got her in trouble on purpose, but they would never achieve what they had done without Charles' consent. Sheryl was upset and disappointed that Charles would not stand up for her and he had been too nice and let people take advantage of his generosity. Sheryl was completely over it.
"Listen, Isla, I am fine. I just want to have a glass of wine." Sheryl pretended as if she didn't care at all and lied to Isla. Instead, she took a sip of wine, in an attempt to ease Isla's worries.
But Isla knew that Sheryl was hiding her sorrow. Although Isla really wanted Sheryl to cry about it and let all her emotions out, she didn't want to and couldn't force Sheryl to do things that she didn't want to do. So Isla poured herself a glass of wine too and said, "Okay then, let me join you!" They drank as they talked about the times they had spent together. All of a sudden, they felt like time had gone back to those happy old days and had stopped there.
But time stopped for no one.
The next day, rays of sunshine came in through the window and rested on Sheryl. Before long, Sheryl woke up, rubbing her forehead in pain. She had a little headache and she opened her eyes slowly. It was already eight in the morning.
Sheryl got up immediately and put on her clothes when she saw the time, afraid that the kids would be late for school. When she opened the door and thought about waking up the children, she saw Clark and Shirley were already having breakfast.
Sheryl and Isla almost walked out of the door at the same time.
They looked at each other with embarrassment.
"Mom, Aunt Isla, come and have breakfast. We're going to be late!" Clark said to Sheryl and Isla calmly before he passed a piece of bread to Shirley. He said to Shirley gently, "Shirley, you are so skinny. You should eat more."
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