Vacational Thermodynamics

“Are you ready yet?”

Mark's voice sounded thin and petulant through the door. Irritated, Gemma closed her eyes and shook her head. No she wasn't ready. Every beauty technique had failed her. The dress she had bought for this vacation was all wrong.The blush that she normally used wasn't softening her face at all. Even her bangs had abandoned her. She had never been pretty. Her face's strong, squarish jaw and high wide forehead had been genetic gifts from her father. Fighting the urge to cry, she opened the bathroom door.

When she saw Mark's face her heart seized up in pain. Mark had never been good at hiding his emotions, or being deceptive in any way. That had been one of the first reason she had loved him. He was so bad at lying that she never doubted his love. It gave their relationship a comfort she had never had before. So when he blanched and then tried to force his face into a smile for her--this weak, pale smile--she felt disgust, and shame, and bilious rage fill her. She was not a thing to pitied.