P is for Pool

When Ex and I were first married, I was in heaven. I thought I had been given the greatest gift in the world – another person’s love.

We spent our first night as husband and wife in a very fancy hotel in town. Ex reserved the honeymoon suite, which came with a bottle of champagne, a basket of snacks, and, best of all, a late checkout time! Instead of the normal checkout time of 11:00, we did not have to be out until 4:00. We took full advantage of the situation by sleeping in and then going down to the pool and hot tub to relax even more.

                     

I used to be very scared of water. I had recently learned how to swim, but I still preferred to stay in the shallow end and just play around. Ex was not satisfied with that. He took me by the waist and dragged me out to where the water was over my head. He stood there, grasping me firmly by the hips and yelling at me to paddle.

Trust me, I was paddling. Because Ex was holding my hips up, my entire torso and head were being dunked under water and I panicked – it felt as if he was trying to drown me. I finally managed to twist around and grabbed him desperately around the neck. I wasn’t mad, just scared.

Ex, however, was irate. He barely spoke to me for the next three days. Welcome to marriage.