The third episode of Married by Monday drifted into the fourth, but neither Chloe or Clark noticed. The trashy reality TV show was just background noise for them. They were engrossed in their phone screens instead. Chloe had been flipping through video after video and Clark had gone through the rotation of every social media app on his phone several times and had run out of things to see. Even so, he kept refreshing only to have the same tweets load again and again.
It had been an awful day at work and as soon as Clark arrived home, he had collapsed on the couch and entered a vegetative state. They hadn't said much to each other other than the perfunctory run downs of their days. They had been married over fifteen years and by this point nearly every silence was a comfortable one.
A notification popped up on Clark's phone. It was from his Fantasy Sports app. It said, "New Message from AuburnFan78!" Clark glanced over at Chloe. She was still engrossed in her phone and wasn't paying attention to him. Not that she would have paid any attention to the notification. It was designed to fly under her radar. She would see just another message from one of the guys in his fantasy football league. It would barely even register in her mind. That's why he had Alicia message him on that app.
He opened the app and logged in. Another layer of safety was that he never left himself logged into the account, just on the off chance she saw a notification and got curious. He opened the Inbox and tapped the message from AuburnFan78, confident that Chloe wasn't paying attention to him. The message read, "Hey how was ur day?"
He typed back, "Fucking awful. Yours?"
The return message came quick, "I'm sorry! Maybe a long hot shower would help??"
Already he was getting hard thinking about sneaking a few minutes with Alicia. Clark knew what she was suggesting. They did it often. She was hoping to get him away from his wife for a quick rendezvous. He tapped out a quick response, "God yes. Give me 15."
He locked his phone and went through the motions of pretending to start his bedtime routine. "Hey, babe. I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to go take a shower and then just go to bed."
Chloe didn't look up from her phone. "Ok, babe. Don't fall in. I'll probably be in bed by the time you get out, Mr. Thirty Minute Shower."
She probably thought he took long showers to jerk off. He felt a familiar twinge of guilt at lying to his wife, but really, it was a small twinge. He had been lying to Chloe about Alicia ever since they met. The story was that Clark and Alicia had dated briefly in college and then broken up and remained lifelong friends. All that was true. The part that they kept secret was that they had never stopped having sex. It had always been too easy and too enjoyable to give up the physical connection they had.
Though Clark always fretted over getting caught, Alicia was convinced they never would. She had a secret which she kept from everyone except Clark. It made it all too easy for them to sneak around without raising suspicion. Alicia could teleport anywhere at will. So she found it impossible to resist popping in to join Clark's shower and provide a little stress relief. If there were any threat of interruption, she could always return home in an instant. They had been fucking like this in secret for years. Clark was always worried the charade would come crashing down around them, but he could never manage to turn down Alicia when she offered herself to him like this.
Clark climbed the stairs and grabbed two towels from the linen closet on his way to the upstairs bathroom. He tossed the towels down on the counter and turned the water on to heat up.
He turned to grab his phone to message Alicia and let her know she could come over. She was standing behind him. Clark yelped. Alicia clasped a hand over his mouth. "Shhh. Unless you want your wife to interrupt us."
Clark grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand off his mouth. "What are you doing here?" He hissed. "I didn't tell you the coast was clear."
Alicia smirked at him. She was tiny compared to him with short blonde hair and an incredibly toned body. She wasn't wearing anything except for a towel. It was impossible to stay mad at her for long. "I couldn't wait." She moved up against him and started lifting his shirt. "Here, let me help you with that."
He pulled her arm away, "Alicia, we're going to get caught if you don't take this seriously."
"Oh will we?" She said, mocking his serious tone. "Your wife will walk in and find me undressing you?"
"She might!"
"Would that be so bad? She could join us!"
Alicia pulled him in for a kiss, stopping his retort in its tracks.
When she pulled back, the thought had vanished. His mouth hung open and he couldn't find any words.
Dropping the teasing tone, she whispered, "I'm sorry, Clark. I just couldn't wait to see you. We'll be careful. I promise."
The last of his anger evaporated and he reached out to grab her by the hips and pull her in. He found himself just holding a towel, as Alicia vanished at the last second. It didn't matter how many times he had seen it, it was always shocking to see her vanish.
The shower curtain moved. Alicia was poking her head out. "You coming in? Or are you just going to let a woman shower all by herself?"
