By Sara
Daniel
Who would you turn to for relationship
advice? A couple headed for divorce? At first glance, of course not. But who
better to discuss the major pitfalls than people who have gone so far wrong
they’re at the point of losing it all? Without further ado, I’d like to
introduce you to Ian and Armina Keer.
Before
Armina Keer can have the baby she dreams of, she needs her estranged husband
Ian to sign their divorce papers. Putting everything on the line for a second
chance, Ian must convince her their love is worth saving, and Armina must
decide if love is worth sacrificing her dreams.
Excerpt:
“You hate
me,” Ian whispered, feeling more nauseous than if he’d ingested a prosthetic
eyeball. How could she not hate him when she believed their personal
relationship had meant less to him than an employment issue?
Armina
gazed beyond his left shoulder. “I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. When
we got married, I understood you had a strong work ethic combined with an
unusual drive to succeed and a consuming passion for the Inn. I knew I’d come
in second to this place.”
He opened
his mouth, wanting to argue, but couldn’t. If she’d made him choose, he
wouldn’t have picked her.
“I thought
I was okay with it,” she continued. “After all, I loved the Inn, too, and
wanted you to realize your vision for it. Turns out I wasn’t okay. I didn’t
realize how distant second place actually was.” She shrugged her slim
shoulders. “Live and learn, right?”
Not right.
He wanted to take back the lesson and teach her about real love instead. “You
never should have had to settle for second place. With me or with anyone else.
No one has the right to ask that of you.”
“Agreed.”
Her voice came out stronger, her shoulders squared, and she looked him directly
in the eye. “Now you understand why I want a divorce.”
Acknowledge
the past can’t be changed. You can apologize and vow to do things differently going
forward and talk through what happen and your mistakes. But you can’t change
your past actions, and tearing down the other person for the choices they made
won’t help either. Sometimes you just have to accept what was and move forward.
He turned
in front of her and stopped walking, forcing her to stop, too. “I know we can’t
go back to how things were. I’m not asking you to give up the life you’ve
created. I’m just trying to understand who you are now and how you’ve changed
since we were together.”
Armina
opened her mouth, but found she had no words. She had no intention of sharing
the goal that had driven her every decision over the past year. To have a baby
before time ran out, she needed his cooperation to ensure a quick divorce.
“I’ve
moved on,” she finally said, not sure she spoke the truth but hoping she did or
at least that the words would soon come true. She needed to move on. The next
chapter of her life couldn’t be put on hold.
“I’m not
asking you to stop moving on. I just need you to give me a moment to sprint to
catch up to you.”
COMMUNICATE – This is all in caps
because it’s so important. Not every problem starts with lack of communication
but almost every problem is made worse by lack of communication. Armina first
left Ian because her uncle’s medical emergency, but it was the lack of communication
afterwards that led to her not returning.
Make the
other person a priority. – If your work is more important than your relationship or
if your actions show that it is, your partner will begin to resent you and the
time you spend on the thing that always takes priority over her/him.
Spend time
together.
There are no shortcuts to making a person a priority than constantly doing so. Ian
was such a workaholic that he consistently chose work over Armina until she
came to believe that she meant nothing to him.
So, you’re on the brink of losing
someone, like Ian is about to lose Armina, and you need a Hail Mary to win the
person back. What do you do? Maybe it’s time to make a deal.
“Our
wedding night in Vegas….” He began.
“Was
amazing,” she agreed. “I’m not saying we didn’t have good moments, but real
life seemed to intrude every time we tried to hook up. Either we didn’t have
sex because you were flat-out too busy to come to bed, or when we did have sex,
you rushed to the finish so you could take a call or run out to accommodate a
guest.”
As much as
he wanted to deny her criticism, he couldn’t. He’d let the Inn take priority in
the bedroom. The only wonder about her leaving him was that she hadn’t walked
away sooner. “I was an idiot and a complete ass to let my work come before our
marriage. Believe me, I’ve had two long years to think about it.”
She
stepped away from his embrace. “If I’m supposed to be impressed you’re man
enough to admit it, sorry, but I’m not. If you’d cared about fixing our relationship,
you would have made some sort of effort to seek me out.”
“I should
have. You’re right. I needed to make changes to my life, and those changes
didn’t happen overnight. All the time I kept hoping you would return and see my
transformation and give me another chance. By the time I adjusted my thinking
to consider coming after you, you’d served me with divorce papers.”
“Speaking
of which—”
No. He
couldn’t believe he’d brought up the topic he most wanted her to forget. Panic
slithered up his spine at how close he was to losing her. He needed to truly
connect with her to have a chance. “Sleep with me, Armina, one more time. I
know you want me, and you can feel how much I want you too.”
“Simply
wanting each other isn’t enough to keep us together.”
“If you’re
not completely satisfied,” he barreled on, his heart breaking. He’d have to
keep his word, even if it killed him. “I’ll sign the papers, no questions
asked.”
Put the
other person’s pleasure first. Be generous. Love without holding back. Your relationship will
have chance, and maybe, just maybe, so will Ian and Armina’s.
Author Bio: Sara Daniel writes what she
loves to read—irresistible romance, from sweet to erotic and everything in
between. She battles a serious NASCAR addiction, was once a landlord of two uninvited
squirrels, and loses her keys at least three times a day. Subscribe to Sara’s
newsletter: http://eepurl.com/rx_AL
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