Green Tie
His first marriage was a fairy tale. She is a family friend, five years younger that him. She is quiet, gentle, shy. She was his first love and they married while she was still in college. He has never been happier that when they found out she was pregnant and never more devastated than when his daughter is stillborn. They name her Helena and bury her in a tiny coffin in the nearest cemetery. Eight months later, he is not happy. She asks what she can do; he asks for a divorce. He wants to forget the tiny grave, and she is a painful reminder.
He second wife could not be more different from his first. She is tall, blonde, outgoing. She is possessive, jealous. She asks him to marry her after three months. He says yes, because he loves her. But it takes more that love to make a marriage work. They fight over how much time he spends with House. She leaves when she finds the shoebox containing photos of his first wife and of his tiny child in the bottom of his wardrobe. He never looks at them, but they are there; he will not throw them out.
Just a month later, he meets Julie. She is hot tempered, hardworking, sociable. They date for a year and a half before he asks her to marry him. He loves his third wife too, but it is not marital bliss for long. The problems come when he brings up the subject of children. He longs for a daughter; yearns for a chance to watch his own child sleep, her chest rising and falling as she breathes. He never got the chance last time. She does not want children. She loves her job, does not want to give it up. They fight more often, and their marriage begins to collapse. He works late. She goes out more often, and the house is nearly always dark and empty when he finally arrives home. He seldom talks to her. She no longer tells him where she is going.
Greg accuses him of having an affair when he wears the green tie. It was a gift from his mother. Six years ago. Ties do not have use by dates. He has never worn it: none of his wives have liked green. He is not having an affair.
He stayed at work last night; held the hand of an eighteen-year-old orphan as she died of leukaemia. Julie is furious. He missed dinner with her boss, but he could not let the girl die alone. He does not want to argue, so he listens to her rant, apologises and does not explain. Today he wears the green tie.
Please review.