preference

It was our fifth anniversary when I told Jason I wanted a divorce.

The reason? I found potato chip crumbs on his passenger seat. And Jason never let me eat in his car.

He scoffed. "Seriously? This is what it's come to?"

This time, I didn't back down like I usually did. I just looked at him, dead serious. "Yes," I said. "This is what it's come to."

It all started at the car wash. The attendant gave me this look. "Ma'am, you've got some food crumbs in here. You might want to consider a detailing."

I was taken aback. "No way," I blurted out. Jason freaked if anyone even thought about eating in his car. We’d fought about it more than once. There was no way there were crumbs in his car.

The attendant gestured for me to look. I leaned in, and there they were. Bright orange, cheesy dust sprinkled across the passenger seat.

I drove home in a daze, parked in the garage, and just sat there. Finally, I turned on the dashcam, scrolling back to yesterday afternoon. After a moment of silence, a car door slammed, followed by a familiar, girlish voice. "Right on time!"

The voice was sweet, almost sickeningly so. My stomach dropped.

"What are you doing out so early?" Jason asked. "Won't your boss give you a hard time?"

"They all know about us," she giggled. "No one messes with me." Coming from a woman my age, it would have sounded entitled and manipulative. But from this barely-out-of-college girl, it just sounded…cute. I heard Jason chuckle.

It took me back to when we were newlyweds. I was still working at his company. I’d tried to say hi to him in the hallway once, and he’d just walked right past me, like I didn't exist. When I’d brought it up later, he’d frowned. "I don’t want people knowing about us," he’d said. "They’ll think I’m playing favorites, giving my wife special treatment."

After that, his parents started pressuring me to stay home, to "take care" of him. So, I quit my job and became a housewife. But apparently, he wasn’t worried about everyone knowing about his relationships. Just mine.

The crinkle of a chip bag snapped me back to the present. The girl – Ashley, I now knew – was munching away. Jason didn’t say a word.

"Oops," Ashley said. "I dropped some crumbs. Sorry."

"Don’t worry about it," Jason said casually. "I’ll get it cleaned later." Then, "Don’t fill up on junk food. I’m taking you somewhere nice for dinner."

The recording ended. I sat in the dim garage, the silence deafening. I tried not to think about it, but I couldn't help remembering two years ago. I was running late for work, hadn’t had time for breakfast, so I grabbed a couple of bagels on my way to the car.

Jason had yelled at me to get out. "No food in my car!"

"I won't make a mess," I’d pleaded. "They're plain bagels, no crumbs." He'd just given me a disgusted look and sped off, leaving me standing there with my bagels in the pouring rain. My heel broke as I ran for the bus stop. I arrived at work looking like a drowned rat and got chewed out by my boss. I almo...