17Sneaking Suspicion
His cell phone beckoned her; lying there on the charger. She'd look away, trying to think of something else, but her eyes kept coming back to the shiny black object with the LED display.
He was sound asleep in the bedroom, and he was a very deep sleeper. She was in the kitchen, and she could easily have it put right back in place before he'd find out or come out and catch her in the act.
She never used to feel this way. Ten years of marriage, and she never had a reason to doubt. That is, until this past month anyway.
The always faithful husband has been acting a little differently lately.
He's always tired at night. The intimacy has been virtually nonexistent. He doesn't tell her about his day much anymore. He gets calls sometimes and it's one-word answers and hang-ups or 'wrong numbers'. Plus he comes home from work late. Well, he usually does, but with everything else…she wonders.
She flips the phone open. Just a quick 'history' check, she tells herself.
'Recent calls' – Hmmm. First number, she doesn't recognize it. Oh, this is off to a bad start. As she scrolls, she recognizes most, wait…
"Why is he calling my work when I'm not there?" She thinks. "He's finding out my work schedule so he knows when I won't be around!"
She grabs the house phone. She dials that first unrecognized number. It rings once.
"Hello?" A young bubbly beautiful voice answers. She hangs up.
She scrolls down his recent calls list some more. The florist, huh? I haven't received any flowers in a long time. That's it.
She puts the phones back and marches to the bedroom. Kicking the door open, she says, "Get up."
"What?" He asks, still foggy.
She turns the light on. "You've got some explaining to do."
He closes his eyes for a second, thinking.
"Explain all the business on your phone."
"What business?" He sighs. He loves it when the day starts like this. Mentally, he tries to visualize the check marks on the calendar…trying to figure out what week it is.
"The flowers, for one."
"Oh, that. Peter at work…his aunt died, I guess they were close," he replied. "I figured it'd be the right thing to do to send an arrangement."
"You didn't tell me about it. I need to log it in checking if you are out there spending money…" she countered.
This was nothing new. He was always spending for gas and stuff and forgetting to tell her. She'd find out when she logged on to the online banking site.
She wanted so bad to believe him, but she couldn't.
And now the nuke.
"What about that top number in your recent calls list? Who is it?"
He swallowed hard. "It's Liz, she's a new client at work."
"Really…" she stared at him in disgust.
He sighed again. "She's a new contact. She started a couple of wee…"
"Why haven't you told me about her?" she interrupted.
"Why would I? So you can give me grief about another girl that I work with?"
"That's such bullshit. Once I met all of the women at your office, you know that I am fine with them now, even though some of them are attractive…" she said. "Also, it makes you look MORE guilty when you have phone calls, a LOT of them, too, to the same person…same GIRL…and I don't know who she is."
"Look, I am not trying to hide anything from you."
He realized it was useless. When she is at this point, there isn't anything that he can say that will make things any better. It's just got to run its course. It bothered him that she felt compelled to check his phone. He hadn't done a good enough job keeping things status quo.
She looked at him with seething eyes of contempt, and she shook her head and walked out of the room. She turned at the last instant, in the doorway, and said, "If you are fucking around on me, I won't end the relationship…I will end your life."
And satisfied with that, she left the room. She didn't ask about him calling her work…she'd save that little nugget for later.
In the bedroom, he sat rubbing his face. Panic mode. "I need to figure out how to cover these tracks quick," he kept thinking.
The day played out as predicted…distant and painful. As did the next few days. She slept on the couch and they barely spoke.
He was careful with his phone calls. He'd have to do things more stealthy from here on out. It definitely didn't make things any easier. He needed to keep this going. His carelessness got him into this mess…he was just so busy all the time, this extracurricular stuff was so hard to keep up with. And now he was really in it.
Meanwhile, she went to her boss the next workday and asked if her husband had called at all asking questions about her.
"Not to my knowledge, but he could've talked to either one of the other managers, too."
She broke down. Her boss closed the office door.
"I think he's having an affair."
"Really? I'm so sorry."
She explained all of the signs to him, and then solicited his opinion.
He thought very carefully before he spoke.
"It definitely sounds like something is going on in your relationship, but I would keep the communication open and let time work it out."
"Time work it out?" She thought. How stupid of an answer is that? This guy is no help. He won't throw one of his fellow macho men under the bus. Whatever.
"Listen," he said. "If you ever need any time off to work this out, you can take it…you've got plenty of sick hours earned."
She tried quickly to wipe all of the emotion off of her uncomfortable skin, and said "thanks".
"Hey, it's me," he said on the phone.
"Hey!" Liz answered on the other end.
"Look, I've gotten into some trouble and we need to lay low for awhile."
"She found out, didn't she?"
"Not yet, but she's close. We just need to limit the calls, that's all. We are all set from here, right?"
"Yeah, I guess…can we get together one more time…"
"I don't think so. Let's just see how this plays out from here. I'll talk to you soon."
"Okay," Liz replied.
At home, as she's balancing the checkbook online, she sees it. The flower bill.
"Are you shitting me?! $250 for a funeral arrangement?"
Yeah, that was another oops that he couldn't figure out how to avoid.
She lit into him like the Fourth of July.
"He's a good friend," was the best he could come up with. Not at all well planned.
"You don't even hang out after work!"
He had nothing.
"I am SO onto you…"
And she slept on the couch again after a painfully lengthy argument.
Her boss came over to her in the middle of a very busy shift and said, "We need to talk."
In his office, he said, "your husband just called. He asked me what time your shift gets over. I told him that I wasn't sure, and he asked me how busy it was here. Then he asked me if it would be okay if we gave you the extra shift, because 'money is a little tight.'"
He could see the storm brewing in her eyes.
"I am not one to get in the middle," he said, "but it's a classic sign. I thought you should know right away. In fact, I have your shift covered…go catch him."
She thanked him, and went for her coat. She didn't see the sidelong glance from her boss to the assistant manager in the corridor.
She drove the whole way home gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles were white. As she passed by the driveway, she spotted a sport utility vehicle parked on the side of the house. She was going to park down the street to catch them in the act.
She noticed the unmistakable flicker of candlelight dancing in the dimly lit windows as the vomit was rising in her throat. Her hand turned the knob so slowly she felt as if her own house were resisting her entrance…protecting him.
Fragrance and candles, flowers were everywhere. Rose petals were all over the floor, leading to the stairs to the bedroom.
"Wow," she thought in disgust, "at least he goes all out for SOMEONE. How the hell would he get this all cleaned up before I got home? That's probably why he wanted my boss to stall me…he is so fucking dead."
As she stepped into the living room, she could hear sounds coming from the kitchen.
"Mmm, that is sooo good." It was her voice. Liz.
"Oh, yes," he paused. "There it is…that's perfect."
She blasted the swinging kitchen door open and charged in.
Four people, three dressed like chefs and waiters, and one in a suit, stood around the center island tasting a sauce.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Her thoughts were all over the place. This scene was not was she was expecting at all, so she didn't know how to react.
"Hi, honey." He just stood there smiling at her, letting her get her wits about her. "I want to introduce you to Liz. She is my buddy Jeff's little sister and she is a professional chef. This is her team, and I hired them to help me…"
They all just waved, judging by the look on her face, they were afraid of getting bitten or something.
"I don't get it…" She just stood there, open-mouthed.
"Do you know what today is?" He asked. "No, you probably wouldn't. Today is the 15th anniversary of the day that I fell in love with you. The first time that I laid eyes on you was when I drove my cousin Jen over to your place, and you looked out the window to see who was there. You looked right through me, waved, and as you turned to go back inside, your profile in that window permanently framed itself in my heart forever. I will never forget the way that I felt after that. I swore that I just glimpsed at pure love, and hopefully my future."
The tears began to well up in her.
"I know that after ten years of being married, things get a little "normal" and I felt it too," he said. "I wanted to do something to shake things up…get us back in touch with each other."
"You almost blew it though," he continued, smiling, "oh, and your boss is totally in on it, too…right from the start. Now, Liz taught me how to make your favorite, Lobster Newburg."
And with that, the catering crew got busy with table setting and service.
She stared at him through her tears. He stood, beaming at what he had done.
He was holding two glasses of champagne, but she reached up and put her hands on his face. She looked deeply at this gorgeous guy, though turning more 'salt and pepper' every day, with his smooth suit on, having done and said the nicest things that anyone ever had for her, and took the picture.
You know the kind. The kind that permanently frames itself in your heart forever.